Broken Serenade

by Dorina Stanciu

  “Exactly!”

  “So you came… for me?” Timothy asked timidly.

  “Are you surprised? You’re my brother!”

  “I didn’t imagine that you cared that much about me. I always felt frustrated that I cared so much about you, and you were only attracted to my money.”

  “You were wrong. I’m not good at kissing asses. And words don’t come easy to me when it’s about love… of any kind. To me, actions are more important than words. You were always by my side, even when I was wrong. It was my turn. So I came as fast as I could. Especially when I heard who was leading the Amazons.”

  “How did you find out it was Mademoiselle Lili?” Vivien inquired eagerly.

  “Carol wasn’t just smart. She was also very resourceful. She sent us Lili’s fingerprints. On a coffee cup. We already had them in London’s police database. They were the perfect match of Miss Lauren’s fingerprints. Or I should call her Mademoiselle Lili, as I found her fifteen years ago when I came to your wedding, Timmy. Lili was a patient of the same psychologist father went to. The doctor was found dead, shortly after Lili’s escape from the sanatorium. At that time, I was a dreaming young boy, and I was crazy in love with her. I had heard rumors about her bisexuality, but I didn’t care. Knowing that, I felt even more attracted to her. I was obsessed with her for a while; I was stalking her almost… I followed her the evening before the doctor’s death, and I watched her as she was leaving his house. I called the police, and I told them about it. Nothing happened. Later, I discovered that the specific time I had given them had not corresponded with the approximate hour of the doctor’s death. I still believe she killed the guy. But you see, I was convinced that she had killed Nadine too. And after tonight’s events… I take that thought with a grain of salt,” Clark declared sighing.

  His words remained floating in the air as an unspoken threat. Was there another killer lurking in the shadows? Was he or she walking comfortably among them? Their minds could have created the perfect chorus of thoughts, but they all kept silent until they got to Vivien’s car.

  CHAPTER 30

  “She’s got the best lawyers money can buy. We can’t corner her with anything solid,” detective Art Leonard said, disappointed. “Nick, I want you to dig deep and find me something. I want you to identify all her friends, old and new, any person that ever made contact with this Miss Lauren, Mademoiselle Lili, The Queen, or whatever you like to call her,” he asked officer Alberman. “If she doesn’t do it, then she has someone doing the dirty job for her. Given all that money she’s got, she doesn’t need to soil her hands. Galina and her Russian companion are small-crime pawns. They’re out of the picture. Also, LaFontain is not the killer, despite her enthusiasm to serve her Queen. We know that, even though we were not capable to get our hands on that old fox.”

  “This woman worked for the architect. She knows all the tricks, all the secret exits and entrances of that mansion. She recovered from Miss Hopkins’ blow just in time. When she heard us, she took off quickly through the secret exit in the hallway. She’s gone! Still nowhere to be found,” Alberman sighed, crestfallen.

  His cellular phone played joyfully the latest hip-hop tune, and the young police officer hurried to answer.

  “Yes, man! I…I remember, of course,” he stuttered.

  Leonard watched his partner’s face turn red. Alberman thanked and hung up.

  “We have a perfect DNA for the yellow scarf killings,” the young police officer announced with a perplexed expression all over his features.

  “How come? Who? The only suspects we got were already eliminated by the DNA results we received yesterday.”

  “Mr. Leonard, sir.” Alberman always called him sir in times like this. “Miss Hopkins called a few days ago. She wanted to talk to you… She had something for you… I gave it to the lab.”

  “If it were for me, how come did it get into your hands? Did she give it to you?”

  “No, sir.” Alberman went all to pieces. “Sir, I can explain.”

  “That’s what I’m waiting for.”

  “I was in the neighborhood. I got to her house…”

  “Get over that, for Christ sake! How the hell did you get the thingy?”

  “The piece of evidence… yeah… well…When she had an unguarded moment, I… I took it, sir. As simple as that. I picked it up from her kitchen counter, and I stuffed it into my pocket. Look, sir,” he exploded with impatience. “We’ve got to talk to Miss Hopkins ASAP. She might be in danger.”

  * * *

  “God! You can’t imagine how much I hate to say this, but I actually miss my secretary terribly,” Timothy declared, visibly stressed. “Could you make the coffee?” he asked Clark.

  “I will certainly try, if you ask me nicely,” Clark consented, not very enthusiastically. “Where is the coffee?”

  “If you start with questions, then I better give that up too,” Timothy snapped.

  His phone rang. He answered immediately. Vivien was calling. His face suddenly brightened up.

  “Vee, what are you up to, my love? I miss you.”

  They had spent the last two days together, making plans for the future.

  “I miss you too, honey. We haven’t seen each other for… two hours and seven minutes. That’s such a long time,” she laughed happily. “I’m at my house,” she announced. “In fact, I’m getting ready to leave right now. I found a message on my answering machine. It was left by someone from the office of grandmother’s doctor. I don’t have the slightest idea how they got my home phone number. It appears that she has forgotten something there at her last visit. They felt indebted to call me and try to give it back. They haven’t specified what that was.”

  “Vee, do you think is wise to leave the house all by yourself? Lili was just released on bail this morning. I can come with you, if you wait for me a little.”

  “Tee, darling, I can’t stay locked up in the house all day long and look at the walls just because Mademoiselle Lili hates me. Actually, you are her number one goal,” she was quick to remind him. “And today you went to work, didn’t you?”

  “Only to arrange a few things and prepare for a long vacation,” he said defensively.

  “The doctor is a man,” Vivien tried to calm him down. “As you’ve seen, Mademoiselle Lili employs only women.”

  “A man? Is he young?”

  “Tee, I don’t know, honey. I’ve never met him before. But I promise you that, in one hour, I’ll be done with this, and then I’ll pick you up at the office, and we can have lunch together. Moreover, I am disposed to put my secretarial abilities at your service all afternoon long. How does it sound?”

  “OK, baby,” he said reluctantly. “That sounds wonderful. But, please, be careful. I wish you would wait for me. I can come right now.”

  “Tee, don’t let paranoia torment you, darling,” she interrupted him.

  “I love you, Vee.”

  “I love you too, Tee. See you soon, honey.”

  Timothy hung up, but he remained watching the phone fixedly, unmoving and tensed.

  “Jealous?” Clark chuckled. “Don’t worry, man, I won’t judge you. If I had a woman like Vee, I would be jealous even of the bird that sings at her window.”

  “It’s not that, Clark. I’m really concerned for her safety. I shouldn’t have left her alone at home. She’s going to this former doctor of her late grandmother. It’s a person she knows absolutely nothing about. A couple of nights ago, she told me that Carol’s death seemed strange to her. After all you’ve told us about the old woman, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that she has been assassinated.”

  “What’s the name of this doctor? You can Google him. If you’re lucky, you can even find a picture of him. For your peace of mind,” Clark chuckled again.

  “Clark, stop joking, man! I have the funny feeling that she’s walking into a trap. And I couldn’t stop her.”

  “Paranoia, Tim. You’re in love with her, and you’re afraid that you might
lose her in some way. It’s common for people in your… special situation to experience this kind of feelings.”

  The Google thing is an idea, Timothy thought, nodding to approve tacitly Clark’s wise conclusion.

  “I’m out for a couple of minutes,” he announced shortly. “In the mean time, maybe you’ll be able to locate the coffee. If not, use your irresistible charm and ask someone from a nearby office to help you.”

  He slammed the door behind him and rushed to the parking lot. He knew where he could find that medical cabinet’s address and the full name of Vivien grandmother’s doctor. The old woman’s prescription was still in his Mercedes. It had fallen behind the front seats, and that morning, he had been bothered by its rattling noise all drive long.

  In minutes, Timothy was back in the office. A vague smell of coffee scented the air in the most pleasant way.

  “Victory!” Clark boasted, lifting the coffee bag from the counter and waving it in the air, triumphant.

  “Me too!” Timothy exclaimed, showing the prescription.

  “Oh, yes. I’ve seen it a couple of nights back, when I had the car, but I wasn’t in the mood to bend down and pick it up,” Clark admitted with not a trace of embarrassment. “I told myself that you’d find it if you needed it. So, who’s sick?”

  “Nobody. It’s Carol Hopkins’ last prescription refill. The pharmacist gave it to Vivien by mistake. I have everything I need here.”

  Timothy put the medication on his desk, then went around and sat comfortably on his chair in front of his computer.

  Clark abandoned the coffee. Curiosity pushed him toward his brother’s desk. He picked up the prescription bag. On a few seconds interval, his face gradually turned red.

  “Just tell me this isn’t true,” he whispered, troubled.

  “What? Do you know him?” Timothy asked anxiously.

  “This guy is a dentist. He’s the brother of father’s psychologist.” Intentionally, he omitted to add “long dead” by the “psychologist”. Tim’s agitation was already quite intense.

  “No, he’s a family doctor,” Timothy corrected him. “He treated Carol for depression, among other age related ailments.”

  “Let me make a phone call. In the mean time, you can calm down. He’s old and totally uninteresting for a femme fatale like Vivien,” Clark told him with a forced smile, trying to moderate the tension risen out of the blue in that room.

  He dialed a number on his cellular phone, and when his call was answered, he only spoke the doctor’s name. For an entire minute, he uttered monosyllabic words, pronounced harshly, with his English accent, and accompanied by frowning and deep sighs. Then he hung up and dialed another number immediately.

  “I need everything you can give me about Andrew Sean Evans, MD, Menlo Park, California. And I need it now!”

  Two minutes later, he urged Timothy:

  “To the car! Hurry! Call her! Tell her not to go anywhere!”

  Timothy grabbed his cellular phone and the keys of his Mercedes. He called his beloved fiancée. She didn’t answer.

  “Talk to me, Clark! Tell me what in God’s name you know, man!” he yelled, descending the stairs as fast as he could and heading to the parking place.

  “Sean Evans immigrated to USA immediately after the death of his brother, Andrew Evans, Lili and father’s psychologist. He was a dentist, but he never practiced dentistry here. He went back to school and specialized himself in psychology and general medicine. After becoming American citizen, he changed his name in Andrew Sean Evans. Same Sean Evans became a member of our organization about a year ago. He introduced himself as the brother of the late psychologist Andrew Evans, and he made a very consistent donation to our organization that speeded his approval. Sean stated that he was a dentist, residing and practicing in the outskirts of London. I just checked him up, and his cabinet ceased to exist about twenty years ago. In the most favorable situation for us, the guy is suspicious, he’s hiding something.

  “I had this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew something wasn’t right the moment she mentioned the message on her answering machine,” Timothy told him, stepping hard on the accelerator.

  CHAPTER 31

  Vivien localized the medical cabinet of Doctor Evans in a building that seemed partly vacant. She couldn’t help but ask herself why her grandmother had chosen to frequent a questionable place like this, when she had Stanford Hospital – one of the best equipped hospitals in the world - so close to her apartment. The thought lingered inside her mind and made her a bit uneasy. Most assuredly, money was not an issue. Carol Hopkins had befriended Doctor Evans. Vivien knew that such a situation usually worked in the detriment of the patient. Any possible mistake in treatment is overlooked, erased by the total trust. A trust that, too many times, is unjustified.

  She took the keys out of the ignition and was getting ready to climb out of the car, when she heard her cellular phone ringing. She grabbed her purse from the back seat and started rummaging through it. She found the phone and noticed that she had a message to check. Vivien postponed that. She assumed the message was from her mother. Mrs. Alison Hopkins had been in the middle of her yoga class when Vivien had called earlier to answer her last three messages, and she had promised her daughter that she would call her back. Now she will have to wait until I get grandmother’s thing from the doctor’s office. After that, we will have more issues to discuss, Vivien thought.

  Now, as she recognized the caller’s number as officer Alberman’s, Vivien answered unenthusiastically. On the other side of the line though, the cop seemed in a particularly accentuated state of tension. His words completed intelligible sentences with a certain amount of difficulty and were accompanied by stressful sighing and panting.

  “Miss Hopkins, firstly… I would like to apologize. I did something… not very honorable. It was rather terrible what I did. Last time I was in your house, I took a certain plastic bag from your kitchen counter without asking your permission. It had Detective Leonard’s card clipped on it. Inside the bag, there was a hair sample from your boyfriend, Mr. Leigh. I gave it to the lab for a DNA test.”

  “You did what?” Vivien interrupted him in a revolting tone. “Are you out of your mind? How could you do that? Do you actually comprehend the gravity of what you’ve done? It could ruin my life, Mr. Alberman. If Tee learns about it, he might think that I gave it to you, that I didn’t trust him! Do you realize the monstrosity of your action? I can sue you and your entire department…”

  “Miss Hopkins,” the baritone voice of detective Leonard cut in. “You have no reason to become alarmed. Your boyfriend will never find out about that if you don’t want him to. Now, there is something more important than that - vital I should say! In the bag, there was another hair different from Timothy’s. The DNA test proved that the white little hair belonged to Arlene’s killer. Now, I want you to tell me where you got that plastic bag. And who touched it beside you or Timothy. It should be a person with whom you came in contact, a person who knows you. I don’t want to scare you, but you have to know that you are in danger. So, take a deep breath, calm down, and try to remember.”

  Vivien’s memory worked fast. She recalled the history of that plastic bag instantly.

  “I got that bag at Igor Schenk’s painting studio. His associate, Miss Clair, put some Avon samples in it for me.”

  “Thank you, Miss Hopkins,” detective Leonard said quickly. “Now, try to stay away from that place and people related to it. If I were you, I wouldn’t leave the house for a while. Is Timothy with you?”

  “No, but I’m heading to his office. I’ll be there in less than a half-hour.”

  The detective hung up, and Vivien remained with an alarming feeling in her heart. If, by any unfortunate chance, I have an accident or something happens to me, Tee will think that I gave them the bag with his hair in it, she thought distressed. She wanted to call him and give him the whole story, but she changed her mind. I have to look him in the eye and tell him tha
t I didn’t do it. She took her purse and got out of her vehicle. An invisible force seemed to pull her back inside the safety of her car. For a couple of seconds, she considered giving up the small task and going straight to Timothy’s firm. Holly crickets! I’m right here, and I will not allow this stupid fear to rearrange my life, she told herself. Actually, I will not spend more than a couple of minutes here.

  Bouncy and full of energy, she walked briskly toward Doctor Evans’ medical office.

  The entrance doorbell rang joyfully as Vivien stepped inside the small waiting room. It was empty at the moment. Magazines and newspapers lay negligently on the black and white tapestry chairs aligned by the walls. A young blonde woman in blue overalls materialized at the reception window.

  “Miss Hopkins?” she asked with a broad smile.

  “Yes. Good morning.”

  “Doctor Evans is waiting for you in his office.”

  The assistant nurse guided her on a narrow corridor with closed doors on both sides. At the last door on the left side, the woman knocked softly and invited her to enter. Vivien took a few small steps inside. The nurse vanished. A man between fifty-five and sixty years old stepped out from behind a dark blue fabric screen. He appeared rather short and had thick, white hair and bushy eyebrows that strangely, were very black.

  “I’m so glad you came, Miss Hopkins,” he welcomed her with a gallant tone and reached out to shake her hand.

  As his cold and damp hand touched her fingers, Vivien felt arctic gusts assailing her body. The minimal physical contact was enough for her mind to start rewinding with great speed their first encounter in Igor’s painting studio. She remembered him opening the brand new plastic bag and stuffing Clair’s Avon samples in it.

  Vivien’s natural defensive mechanism kicked in instantly.

  “Would you excuse me for a minute? I forgot something in the car,” she said hastily and turned around to leave. She pushed the door handle, but discovered it was blocked. She tried to keep her cool.