God, Katy, where are you?
Tetyana slammed the boot shut, shaking her head.
“Nothing here.”
I glanced around the grounds. She could be anywhere. Whoever had taken her could have tied her up and pushed her under a hedge.
But why would anyone take her?
Katy had no connection to this family. This was the first time she’d even come to this state.
If this had anything to do with the codicil, it hadn’t referred to any of our names, only that of my company. I was sure none of us had mentioned my bakery name to anyone in this family.
A chill went through me as I remembered that piece of paper was in Katy’s pocket. If whoever took her searched her, they’d find it easily.
“We need to hurry!” I said, turning to Tetyana.
It took us minutes to get into the barn. As I kept vigil near the main door, Tetyana and Jim searched the place together.
I’d thought the barn would be easy and fast, but I’d forgotten all the hiding spots in this place, including the empty stalls, and the cupboards that held the mulch and manure bags.
Jim moved the horses out of their stalls so Tetyana could search their space as well. The horses didn’t seem too upset by our intrusion. I wondered if they welcomed this attention, after being cooped in for so long.
“Nothing,” said Tetyana, after a thorough search.
“Next stop, the cabin,” I said, urgently reaching for the door.
An alarmed expression came over Jim’s face.
“But there’s nothing there,” he said.
Tetyana turned to him. “Something in there you don’t want us to see?”
“They probably took her to the woods,” he mumbled, blinking, as if he was trying to come up with a fast answer. “They could have taken her up the mountains.”
“I don’t think so,” said Tetyana. “It’s cold, dark, and slippery out there. Unless the person who took her was a lunatic, no one would risk their own lives like that.”
“Jim,” I said. “What are you hiding?”
“Nothing,” he said, looking away. “We’ll be wasting our time, that’s all. I tell you there’s nothing there. Besides, it’s locked—”
Tetyana turned the gun on him.
“Move,” she said. “Now.”
Chapter Fifty-four
“Someone’s inside,” I whispered.
The eerie yellow light flickered in between the trees, disappearing one moment and appearing again, as the cold wind rustled the leaves.
Someone had lit the candles inside the cabin. But as we marched through the trail with Jim trudging reluctantly between us, it felt like a menacing signal, like a spotlight from a lighthouse, warning us to stay away.
My mind was buzzing nonstop. All I could think of was Katy.
We’d watched each other’s backs since high school. We’d been there for each other, through the most unimaginable horrors of our lives.
Katy was the most trusting and kindest one of us too. She’d got into trouble before by being at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. I wondered who had tricked her into opening the door.
And why?
I gritted my teeth as I felt a red-hot flash of anger unfurl inside of me. If anyone had touched a hair on Katy’s head, I’d make them pay so badly, they’d wish they were never born.
When we reached the cabin, Tetyana instructed Jim to walk up to the front door until she gave the signal.
I waited at the bottom of the steps, my gun trained on the door while Tetyana slunk around the cabin to look through the window.
The woods were quiet.
I remembered the haunting sound of a night owl hooting among the pine trees the night before. But now, it seemed even the bird knew something was up. I imagined the trees surrounding the cabin holding their breaths, as they waited, like us, to see what would happen next.
Other than the flickering light from the cabin windows, there weren’t any other signs of life. But someone was inside the shack.
Why wasn’t Katy making any noise? Wouldn’t she have fought back and screamed by now?
I shuffled my feet impatiently as I waited for Tetyana to return from her reconnaissance.
“Caril,” she whispered as she came around the corner.
“Katy?” I asked.
She shook her head.
She leaped up the steps, pushed Jim aside and rapped on the door sharply.
I could imagine Caril staring at the door, wondering who it was coming at this time of night. After what felt like ages, I heard footsteps near the entrance.
The door flung open.
“Oh!”
Caril stared at Tetyana, who was standing at the threshold with her gun pointed at her head.
For the first time since we’d met her, Caril wasn’t wearing her shades. The only illumination inside the cabin came from two candles on the table. Outside, among the trees, it was dark and hard to see.
But Caril’s eyes swept down toward me, then back up at Tetyana. Her eyes widened as she spotted Jim standing quietly in the shadows of the porch.
So she can see without those glasses.
“What are you all doing here?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“May we come in?” said Tetyana. It wasn’t a question.
Without waiting for a reply, she walked inside, forcing Caril to the back of the cabin.
I jumped up the steps toward the entrance. I pulled Jim inside, closed the door, and positioned myself where I could see everything.
Caril stepped backward and toward the kitchen sink until she hit the counter. She gripped the edge of the counter, her face white.
“How... how did you know I was here?” she asked.
“The question is, what are you doing here?” I said. “And where’s Katy?”
Caril scrunched her forehead. She looked from me to Tetyana to Jim.
“What do you mean?”
“Our friend. She’s missing. Where is she?”
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”
“She fell down the stairs and twisted her ankle.” My eyes fell on Caril’s feet. “A real ankle twist, unlike yours,” I said with a snarl. “So she couldn’t have walked out. That means, someone carried her out or forced her to walk out.”
Caril opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water. It seemed like she’d lost her voice. She shook her head mutely.
Tetyana turned to Jim and motioned him toward the bed.
“Sit where we can keep an eye on you.”
Jim didn’t wait to be told again. With a scared glance at her, he moved toward the bed and perched on the edge.
Tetyana turned to Caril.
“Anyone else in here?”
Caril’s eyes widened.
“I asked a question.”
“No,” said Caril, shaking now. “No. ’Course not. Just me...” she stammered. “Who are you people?”
Without answering her, Tetyana started working her way from the entrance. She checked the small closet, all the kitchen cabinets, under the bed and even the stove.
Jim sat at the edge of the bed, his head in his hands, as if he couldn’t take it anymore. That was when I saw the small square object near his feet, half hidden under the bed.
I didn’t need to see it up close to realize this was the girl’s diary Katy had been reading up in our room.
That was when I realized who the woman was. There was only one answer to her strange behavior, and now I knew.
Once Tetyana was done inside the main cabin, she moved into the bathroom. My heart dropped to hear her rip open the shower curtain. I half wondered if Katy was tied up and trussed in the shower.
“All clear,” said Tetyana, coming out of the bathroom with something in her hand. “No weapons. No ammunition. No bodies.”
She held a plastic package up and turned to Jim.
“Except for this.”
I peered at the small white packet in her hand. I n
oticed Jim’s face had gone pale.
“There’s a stash of these in the bathroom cabinet,” said Tetyana. “Jim, you want to tell us what this is, or should I?”
His shoulders dropped. He looked down at his feet and let out a defeated sigh.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Cocaine,” said Tetyana.
Caril gasped. “I thought it was bath salts.”
“Gift from the pastor?” said Tetyana to Jim.
He let out another desperate sigh. His eyes were red, lined with stress. He’s about to cry, I thought.
“He got me hooked on it early.”
“Pastor Graham?” said Caril in shock.
No one answered her. This was not my or Tetyana’s story to tell.
Jim gave Tetyana a pleading look.
“If Nancy ever found out, she’d leave me. She doesn’t know about my... other side....” He paused and swallowed hard.
“She already suspects something. She found a small packet in my trouser pocket yesterday. I told her I was hiding it for the pastor, but she didn’t believe me. She’s spitting mad at me right now. I just can’t tell her about the pastor too. It’ll kill her to know....”
“What’s all this about the pastor?” said Caril, straightening up. “What are you all talking about?”
“It’s fine, Jim,” said Tetyana, ignoring Caril, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “We’re not here to judge you. All we want you to do is tell the truth. Thank you.”
Tetyana looked at me.
“Now we know why Nancy screeched in the middle of the night. It was no nightmare.”
Jim put his head in his hands again. His shoulders shook, like he was crying silently.
My mind whirred. Jim had a good reason to get rid of the pastor, but he’d been with us that hour, so he couldn’t have done it. This still didn’t exonerate him from Mrs. Robinson and Doctor Fulton’s murders, if they were truly murders.
I turned to Caril.
“All right,” I said. “Your turn. Start talking.”
She gave me a scared look.
“What do you want me to say?”
“Let’s start with your real name.”
Caril’s jaw dropped. She stared at me in shock.
I tried again.
“Caril’s not your name, is it?”
She looked away.
“Charles said he’d never been to this house before,” I said. “But you have. In fact, you were born here. Am I correct?”
Chapter Fifty-five
She blinked rapidly.
“Jim,” I said, pointing at the floor near his feet. “The book, next to you.”
He reached down and pulled the book out from underneath the bed. I leaned over and plucked the diary from his hands.
“This diary,” I said, turning to the woman. “It’s yours, isn’t it?”
I squinted at the woman standing in front of us. She stared at me like an animal caught in the headlights of a car.
“Your real name’s Victoria.”
Even in the dim candlelight, I could see her neck flush deep red. Her hands were gripping the counter so tightly, her fingers had turned white.
“Why did you choose the names Caril and Charles to introduce yourself to this household?”
She flinched like my words had been daggers.
“The Natural Born Killers,” I continued. “You thought you were being smart, weren’t you? Or did you think it would be funny?”
Jim turned a startled face toward me.
“Natural Born Killers?”
I didn’t answer. Neither did Victoria.
She stood scrunched up in the corner, withering like a leaf on fire.
“I think you wanted to scare someone in this house,” I asked, “that way, they’d know you weren’t returning home for just a tea party. You meant business.”
Victoria had her head down now. Her chest was heaving, and I saw a tear fall to the ground.
“Who did you want to scare?” I said. “Your mother, Lisa? Your uncle, Barry? Or was it Mrs. Robinson who took care of you as a child?”
With a shriek, Victoria brought her hands to her face. Then she burst into tears.
I waited for her to let it all out. We listened quietly to her gut-wrenching sobs, watching the tears roll down her cheeks, her face partially hidden behind her trembling hands.
I looked over at Tetyana, who was standing on guard near the door.
“Katy,” she mouthed.
I nodded. Katy was our priority.
I took a step closer to the woman.
“Victoria, our friend is missing and may be in danger. We need to know where she is and why anyone would take her.”
She didn’t answer.
I tried again.
“We think all these events are connected, and I think you can help us figure it out.”
“I’m scared,” she stammered in between her sobs, “I don’t know why everyone’s dying like flies. I’m so scared.”
“Victoria, I need you to pay attention,” I said, my voice firm. “Can you do that?”
What I really wanted to do was to walk up to her and shake the answers out of her.
Jim picked up a towel that had been lying on the bed and handed it to her. She took it from him and wiped her face clumsily.
“Can you tell us the truth?” I asked.
She gave a small nod.
I felt sorry for her. She was a broken woman. Victoria had a role to play in the events, but I was sure she wasn’t the killer now.
“Why did you come back home?” I said, keeping my voice as gentle as I could.
“Mrs. Robinson,” she whispered, wringing the towel in her hands. “She told me it was time.”
“Time for what?”
She took a deep breath and swallowed. Jim stood up, walked over to the sink and poured her a glass of water. We waited for her to drink.
“She said my grandmother died,” she said, putting the glass down with a shaky hand. “I never really knew her, but Mrs. Robinson said she most probably left the estate to me.”
I raised my eyebrows. I wanted badly to look at Tetyana, but I kept my focus on the woman in front of me.
Victoria swallowed a sob and took another breath in.
“She knew Grandmother hated my mom and uncle. She called them devil’s children. So, Mrs. Robinson told me to come and claim what I own.”
I felt my stomach sink. If that codicil was legal, we’d be stealing the childhood home from this woman who’d spent most of her life in an asylum.
“It was you who we saw in the woods two days ago, wasn’t it?” I said.
Victoria turned to me and blinked.
“You were arguing with a man in the clearing out there near the river. Who was it? The pastor?”
She shook her head. “Doctor Fulton,” she whispered.
“We saw you take a knife out and stab his face.”
A surprised gasp came from Jim.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“He wanted me to go away. He wanted me to leave this place.”
“Why?”
She looked up.
“Because he didn’t want me to get hurt. He said I wasn’t safe here.”
“And you stabbed him?” said Tetyana, frowning.
Victoria buried her head in her hands. “I didn’t want to hear it. I was angry. I thought he was pushing me away from what was rightly mine.”
“Do you know who killed Mrs. Robinson?” I asked.
She stared at the floor for a while.
“No.” She shook her head. “I only came back because... I wanted my childhood back.”
“Why take on serial killer names then?” I asked. “And why come in the middle of the night, wearing shades, telling a dubious tale of getting lost on a hike in the mountains during off season?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t mean to...,” said Victoria, her hands gripping the counter again, as if that was the only thing keeping her up. “It was Cha
rles’ idea.”
“Who’s Charles?” I asked. “A friend? Family?”
“Boyfriend.” She paused and shrugged. “Kind of, I guess.”
“Where did you two meet?”
Victoria looked down and shuffled her feet.
“He worked at the hospital.”
“What did he do there?”
“A cleaner. Custodian. He also did magic tricks for the kids to make extra money. They didn’t treat me very nice there. He helped me a few times. Then he, er....” She stopped and buried her face in the towel again.
“What did he do?” I asked.
“He asked me to do him favors.”
Tetyana grimaced. I could only guess what favors they would be.
“You never reported him to the doctors or the nurses?”
“He said everyone was against me so, I never...” She looked down, a despondent expression on her face. “He was the only friend I had.”
Victoria had turned silent again.
“Then one day,” I said, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle myself, “Mrs. Robinson called you or wrote to you to give you news of your grandmother’s death?”
She nodded.
“How did you get out of the hospital?”
“I asked Charles to help me. He said no at first, but when I told him I was going to inherit tons of money, he said he’d help, but he made me promise to give him half the money and half the house.”
“Some boyfriend,” muttered Tetyana from behind me.
“And you said yes?” I asked.
“He helped me.” Her voice rose in pitch.
“How?”
“He wrote a letter, pretending to be my doctor.”
“He forged a discharge letter?”
She nodded.
“He said they’ll never find out. And if they did, we’d be long gone, anyway.”
“Then you both came here?”
“Not right away.” Her eyes were studiously scrutinizing the floor, like she was too ashamed to tell the story.
“He took me to a bar, and we got drunk. I got drunk. I’d never had anything stronger than cough syrup before. Anyway, I don’t remember much, but he wanted me to do all these things.”
“Like what?” I asked gently.
“He came up with this crazy idea of Caril and Charles, and said we’d come up here and surprise everyone, you know?”
Merciless Legacy: Merciless Murder - A Thrilling Closed Circle Mystery Series Page 25
