Rock Around the Corpse

by Lizbeth Lipperman

  “What happened?” Maddy interrupted, her voice cracking. “Is my daughter okay?”

  The expression on the cop’s face never changed. “She fell from a treehouse and broke her wrist, but yes, she’s okay. Sheriff Winslow just wanted you to know that.”

  “Thank God!” A rush of tears formed in Maddy’s eyes. “She’s all I have.”

  Vince stepped closer. “Does your radio work, Sheriff?” After the cop nodded, Vince started around the car but stopped abruptly when a shot rang out and the cop fell to the ground.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Horrified, Deena watched as the cop fell backwards onto the pavement, a river of blood flowing away from his body. Turning to see where the shot had come from, she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Paulina standing behind them, holding a revolver that was still smoking. She flinched as the woman fired two more shots directly at the tires on the passenger side of the police cruiser before walking past them and putting another round into the window right at the dashboard. Then Paulina bent down, unlatched the safety snap on the fallen officer’s holster, and lifted out his gun.

  Deena ran to the cop and knelt over him to check his pulse. He was still alive—barely. But she didn’t have to be a doctor to know that if they didn’t stop the bleeding from his chest wound in a hurry, he wouldn’t be around much longer.

  “Get up,” Paulina commanded, shoving the weapon in Deena’s face. “Now.”

  Deena ignored her and ripped off the bottom of her own T-shirt. Placing it over the bleeding wound, she pressed hard against it.

  “I said get up,” Paulina screamed. “Let him die.”

  Deena looked directly into the barrel of the gun, hoping her eyes didn’t show the terror she felt. “I can’t do that, Paulina. If you won’t let us carry him into the lobby, then you might as well shoot me right here.”

  A strange look crossed the assistant chef’s face before a half smile replaced it. “Don’t tempt me. I’m still getting headaches because of you. It wouldn’t take much to convince me to put a bullet in your head.”

  Confused by that remark, Deena was about to question her when Paulina said, “Bring him in, but if you try anything, I’ll make sure he’s really dead right before I kill all of you.”

  Maddy and Deena each took a leg while Vince grabbed the wounded man’s upper torso. Slowly, they made their way to the lobby where they deposited him on the white bearskin rug in front of the fireplace, then used the rug to drag the injured man over to the corner out of the way. In that short time, his blood had already soaked through the rug and oozed out from underneath to puddle onto the tile floor.

  “We need Kate,” Deena hollered to Vince as she noticed that the wound was seeping blood around the sides of the shirt she was pressing against the wound. She leaned harder on his chest, hoping she didn’t break any ribs. “Tell her to bring anything she can think of that might stop this man from bleeding to death.”

  Paulina stepped in front of the door, blocking the way to the rooms. “Nobody’s going anywhere.”

  By now Sergio had joined them and was staring at Paulina with narrowed eyes, obviously confused at seeing his assistant holding a gun. “Paulina, what in God’s name do you think you’re doing?”

  Paulina turned to him. “Serg, go to Room 6 and bring back the lady doctor.” She paused for a second before continuing, “Actually, knock on all the doors and bring everyone to the lobby, but don’t tell them why. If you do, the blood of these three will be on your hands.”

  As they waited for Kate, Deena stayed on the floor next to the cop. When his eyes fluttered open, she breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t dead—at least not yet. Grabbing his hand, she looked directly into his eyes. “Stay still, Officer. We have a doctor coming.”

  The man barely nodded and attempted to squeeze her hand. Glancing down at the makeshift compression bandage on his chest, which was now totally soaked with his blood, she quickly tore off another portion of her T-shirt, exposing her entire upper abdomen. Covering the bloodied bandage with the new one, she resumed pressure on the wound with her hand. She could see that the injured man was getting weaker by the minute. His breathing was now shallow, and when he closed his eyes, she prayed that her sister would get there in time to save him.

  “Vince, I need you and your cop friend to stand over there.” Paulina pointed to the wall furthest away from her. “That way you won’t be tempted to make a sudden move on me. A move that would result in your demise, I might add.”

  Vince hesitated only briefly before he grabbed Maddy’s arm and led her to where Paulina had pointed. On the way there, he whispered something in her ear, but Deena couldn’t make it out.

  Just then the door burst open, and Kate ran in with her arms full of towels and wash cloths. Lainey was right behind her with several blankets and a pillow. Immediately, Kate rushed over to the wounded man and knelt down beside him. Deena watched in fascination as her little sister did what she was trained to do and put the cop at ease. “I’m Kate Garcia and I’m a doctor. Try to relax while I get a peek at your injury so that I can figure out how to get the bleeding to stop.” She shook her head when Lainey tried to put a pillow under him and mouthed he’s in shock. “Put that under his legs and cover him with those blankets,” she instructed her, instead.

  The cop glanced toward Deena, a look of terror in his eyes as if he knew he was dying and was watching his life flash in front of him. Deena remembered once at the nursing home when one of the residents nearly bled out and went into shock. The nurse had them elevate his legs and lower his head. She’d explained that it was imperative to get what little blood the guy had left flowing back to his brain. She was grateful that Kate was there to do that.

  Kate pulled the bloody T-shirt away from the wound, which was still bleeding but at least wasn’t oozing from the sides anymore. She folded one of the towels to make a thick bandage and pressed it over the area. “How’s that pain, sir?”

  The cop tried to shrug and grimaced. “Not too bad. Name’s Wilkerson,” he muttered, his voice so low, Deena almost didn’t hear him.

  Kate leaned over and grabbed his side. “Deena, help me turn him slightly. I need to know if the bullet passed through cleanly or is still in there.”

  Deena did as instructed, and after Kate verified that there was no exit wound, helped her sister turn him onto his back again.

  By now the other guests had assembled in the lobby, all chatting at once amongst themselves, not yet aware that Paulina had a gun.

  “Shut up!” Paulina shouted, flashing the weapon at them.

  Haley started toward the chef, an outraged look on her face. “What in the hell are you doing?” She stopped in her tracks as Paulina faced her, nearly pressing the weapon into the owner’s chest.

  “I don't want to hurt you, Haley,” she started. “You’re one of the few people who’ve been good to me, but I will if I have to. Now go line up against that wall and take the rest of your guests. If nobody tries to be a hero, everyone will walk away from here unharmed.” She motioned with her gun toward the back wall where Maddy and Vince were already standing.

  Deena stayed on the floor taking it all in and trying to figure out why Paulina was doing this. Maddy had said nothing unusual had sent up a red flag when they’d interviewed her in the dining room yesterday. So what had they missed?

  Kate’s soft voice brought her back to the present dire situation. “The bleeding has almost stopped, Mr. Wilkerson, and your pulse and breathing are better.”

  “Jerome,” he whispered.

  She smiled. “Okay, Jerome, I need you to be as still as you can until we can get an ambulance out here.” She turned to Paulina. “Where’s the satellite phone?”

  Paulina tsked. “Like I’m just going to hand it over to you.”

  “Either that or tell the police why you didn’t get help for this man.” Kate glared at the chef. “Don’t you think you’ve caused enough pain and suffering as it is?”

  “What do
you know about pain and suffering, you little twit? You’ve had an easy life and have no idea what I’ve been through.”

  Vince took a step toward Paulina but was forced back when she turned the gun on him. “Why don’t you tell us why you killed Brent Kershaw and why you’re holding us hostage,” he probed, despite the fact that Paulina shot him a look lethal enough to kill.

  “Not that I owe any of you an explanation, but if there ever was a man who deserved to die, it was Brent Kershaw.”

  “Why, Paulina?” Deena asked, still kneeling beside Wilkerson. “I know that some of the others have told us how unethical Brent was, but what did he do to you that was so bad you felt you had to kill him?”

  “Unethical?” Paulina threw back her head and laughed. “That doesn’t even begin to describe Kershaw. The man was pure evil.”

  “A lot of men fit that category,” Deena said. Even as the words left her mouth, she couldn’t stop the image of her dead husband from popping into her brain. He would have fit that category, too.

  “That may be true. Let’s just say Kershaw tried to scam me out of something that should’ve been all mine in the first place.” Paulina smirked. “Now it will be.” She looked directly at Deena. “I thought it was especially clever of me to wear the foil space blanket and make you think I was the stone clad monster. Don’t you think?”

  Deena couldn’t stop the surprised look that she knew must be covering her face. “Why would you do that? What did any of that have to do with my scissors ending up in Brent’s chest?”

  Paulina chuckled. “Another show of my brilliance—using your own designing scissors to kill your lover as he lay next to you. Too bad you were too drugged to enjoy it.” She glanced at the clock on the wall “The way I figure, we’ve got a little over ten hours before your families start to wonder where you are and call the cops.” She flicked her head toward Wilkerson. “I had hoped to be on my way to Mexico before that happened. Hadn’t counted on them being alerted so quickly, though.”

  “So now that you’ve killed Kershaw and extracted your ounce of revenge, why do you need the rest of us?” Vince, who had been standing quietly in the back observing Paulina, took another step forward. “Why not just go now and get a head start?”

  “Oh, revenge was only a small part of it,” Paulina explained, forcing him back again with the gun. “Somewhere in this god-forsaken place in the middle of nowhere is my payoff, and I’m not leaving without it.”

  Deena narrowed her eyes, noticing that Paulina’s Hispanic accent seemed to be less pronounced. Staring at her, she concluded that there was something familiar about the woman, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. And what about Paulina’s earlier comments? How on earth was she responsible for the woman’s headaches? Deena’s mind was racing, but she was getting nowhere, and she felt a little like a hamster on a wheel. She was jarred from her thoughts when Wilkerson moaned slightly.

  “Are you allergic to anything, Jerome?” When he shook his head, Kate turned to the crowd, all still lined up against the wall. “Do any of you have anything stronger than aspirin or Tylenol?”

  “I have hydrocodone tablets,” Annie Elliott admitted. “They’re for my gout,” she added when everyone stared at her.

  “Can you get them?” Kate asked. “And bring back a glass of water, please.”

  Annie started for the door but stopped when Paulina hollered, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” After thinking it over momentarily, she waved the elderly woman on. “You can get the pills, but from now on, I give the orders, Kate. Not you.”

  Kate sneaked a glance in Deena’s direction and raised her eyebrows in a comical way, totally enjoying the fact that she’d gotten under Paulina’s skin.

  When Annie returned with the medication, Deena helped Kate lift Wilkerson’s head so she could give him a dose with a small sip of water.

  “What did you mean about the payout, Paulina?” Vince asked, studying her again like he was trying to profile her.

  The chef turned to Haley, ignoring him. “I need to know if there are any safes in this place.”

  “Only the one at the receptionist desk,” the frightened spa owner said. “If it’s money you’re looking for, you won’t find any. I’m broke and will probably have to file for bankruptcy when this is all over.”

  Once again Paulina laughed. “It’s not your money I’m after, Haley. It’s your sister’s money.”

  “Chrissy? She didn’t have any money, either. Other than this place, she had nothing.”

  “Oh, but she did,” Paulina said. “And I intend to find it. When I do, I’ll leave you all out here to be rescued. The faster I get what I want, the quicker you go home to your families. So it would behoove you to tell me where it is.”

  Haley looked bewildered. “Honestly, Paulina, Chrissy was always looking for ways to make ends meet. How she had the money to buy this place is something I’ll never figure out.”

  “She scammed me. That’s how,” Theo Elliott hollered from across the room. “Your sister was a prostitute who made my life a living hell before she took everything I owned, including this place.”

  “What are you talking about, dear?” Annie Elliott asked. “I thought you said we lost the hunting lodge because of back taxes.”

  The look on Theo’s face was sheer horror as he turned to his wife. “I was going to tell you eventually, honey. Do you remember that week I spent in Dallas with a group of investors interested in the lodge after the bank threatened to foreclose on us?” When she nodded, he continued, “Well, one night at the hotel bar, I apparently had one too many. Next thing I know it’s morning and I wake up with a hell of a headache and no money in my wallet.”

  “You should’ve told me,” Annie said, her voice beginning to show her anger. “Is that when you slept with the whore?”

  Theo lowered his head. “Yes, although I can’t remember a thing. All I know is that a week later I began getting pictures in the mail and—”

  “What kind of pictures?” his wife interrupted.

  “Photos of me and Haley’s sister in a compromising position.”

  “Dammit, Theo. I always knew your womanizing ways would ruin us one day.” Annie blew out an angry breath. “And you gave her the lodge when she blackmailed you?”

  With his head still down, he nodded. “We were broke. I had nothing else of value.”

  Deena watched the drama play out, trying to make sense of it all. Theo had once owned the lodge—although it sounded like he was going to lose it anyway—and handed it over to keep his wife from seeing the pictures of Chrissy giving him oral sex. Suddenly, the reason behind Annie’s pretend ankle injury made even more sense. The two of them may have cooked up a scheme to try to get the lodge back. What better way than to sue the new owner for damages, especially if they’d already known Haley was in trouble financially and would have to settle.

  “Chrissy was definitely a Jezebel. Wouldn’t you say so?” Paulina zeroed in on Maddy.

  As Maddy stared at Paulina with a confused look on her face, a lightbulb went off in Deena’s head. “Oh dear God!” she said, loud enough for everyone to hear. She turned to her sister. “Paulina is Jezebel.”

  Maddy stared at the chef for a moment with a confused look on her face until the light finally went on for her. “You’re the woman we caught having an affair with Deena’s husband that day in a downtown Dallas restaurant? The one I called Jezebel?”

  “For a cop, you’re not too bright, are you?” Paulina’s Hispanic accent had totally disappeared and was replaced with a slightly Scandinavian one. She touched a lock of her dark black hair and grinned. “Once a redhead, always a redhead, but Miss Clairol can make you into whoever you want to be.”

  “Helga,” Maddy said.

  “Finally,” the chef said. “I was beginning to worry about you and your sister.”

  “Who’s Helga?” Vince asked, staring at all of them now.

  Deena spoke up. “Remember me telling you the story of Agosti
nelli and the Mafia guy from New Jersey?”

  “I do, but I don't understand what Paulina, Helga, or whatever the hell her name, is has to do with all that?”

  “She’s the girlfriend of the drug dealer.” Deena made eye contact with Helga. “She’s also the one who dressed up like Maddy and killed Agostinelli in his cell.”

  “Another brilliant plan concocted by me and Eddie,” Helga admitted.

  “You meant nothing to Eddie Montero, Helga. Why else would he have ordered you to seduce Deena’s husband and turn him against me? You were just another washed-up whore that he could manipulate, much like Chrissy Rockford.” A slight smile curled Maddy’s lips. “You should’ve died along with Eddie that day at his mother’s house. I only wish that when Deena cold-cocked you with a lamp, she’d done more than just give you a headache.”

  Helga leveled the gun at Maddy, and Vince stepped in front of her to shield her. “What do you need from all of us? Haley’s already told you that her sister died broke,” he said, standing his ground.

  “I may have misled you. It’s not really her sister’s money I’m after. I’m looking for the real pay day with Agostinelli’s cash. I wonder if Chrissy even knew her boyfriend was holding out on her, or if she really was the brains behind it all,” Helga said with a grin. “And they say women are the fairer sex. Agostinelli was so scared, he wet himself and would’ve told me anything in that cell. He promised if I let him live, he’d split the four million he had stashed out here. I had to put a bullet in his forehead before I could find out exactly where he’d hidden it because I didn’t want Eddie to overhear.” She smirked. “You say Eddie was playing me. I was about to get all that cash that he knew nothing about and move on without him.”

  “The Mafia money,” Deena shouted.

  “I have no idea whose money it was. All I know is that it’s here somewhere.” Helga scanned the room before adding, “And I won’t leave without it, even if I have to blow up the place to find it.”

  “How does Kershaw play into all this?” Vince asked, still shielding Maddy.