“Your company? It should be my company. I paid dearly for it. You and your family have been a thorn in my side ever since I heard about Davidson Industries. It’s gotten worse since I decided to marry you.”
This was better. He was getting upset. She didn’t care what he said about her; she just had to keep him talking.
“My family accepted you completely. My father thought you were wonderful.”
“Your father. I was lucky he had the heart attack when he did. If he hadn’t, I’d probably still be his yes man today.”
“Vernon!”
He stalked toward her. “Let’s see. How should I kill you, Rebecca? I want it to be different from the others. I want your detective friend to know you suffered before you died. I also want Quimbley to spend the rest of his life wondering if he could have done something to prevent your death.”
“Why do I have to die? You can have the company, Vernon. I’ll sign it over to you.”
“You can’t give me anything. Your damn sister saw to that. That’s why she had to die. She spoiled everything.”
Rebecca’s eves filled with tears. “So you did kill Mindy? But how?”
“It was easy. Easier than you can imagine. You people are stupid. I would have gotten away with her murder if she hadn’t blabbed to that bitch aunt of yours.”
“You’re a smart man. Why did you have to kill anyone? You could have taken the business. I wasn’t aware you were stealing, and I lived with you every day.”
“That’s what made it fun, Rebecca. Everyone thinks you’re so smart, but you’re not. You’re really very stupid.” He laughed at the look on her face. “Yes, I had great fun fooling you. I would tell you I had a business meeting, and then I’d meet Mindy. She was one hell of a lover, Rebecca. Much more wild than you. And I’m sure you’ve heard about the DVD we made. It was great. I’ve made a ton of money from it.”
“I’ve always thought you were a smart man, Vernon.”
“Yes, that was one of your few good points, my dear. You did recognize genius when you saw it in me. That did please me.” He touched her cheek. “Oh, yes, Rebecca. I’ll have to admit that sometimes life with you was pleasant. But pleasant wasn’t enough for me. I wanted the excitement only a woman like Mindy could give me.”
“If she meant so much to you, why’d you kill her?”
“As I said, she had to die. I didn’t want to do it at first.” He sat on the bed beside her and took Rebecca’s hands in his. She tried to pull away, but he held firm. When she didn’t say anything, he went on, “Killing Mindy was fun at the end. She wasn’t expecting me to come over that night. She’d already had a long tryst with Max Garvey and didn’t want to entertain me. But when I put a guilt trip on her by telling her how cold you were and how much I needed the warmth she could provide, she gave in. She was a passionate woman, and making love to her was a lovely experience. After it was over, I killed her.”
Rebecca was glad she was sitting because she felt faint. Yet she knew she wanted to keep him talking. “How could you kill someone you say you loved?”
“After I decided to do it, it was easy. Almost mechanical. I sat on the bed and looked at her. I told her I had to kill her, and she laughed. I explained she was a danger to me and my plans, and I had no other option. She laughed again. I picked up the pillow from the other side of the bed and smiled at her as I put it over her face. I took it away while she was still conscious and asked her if she believed I was really going to do it. I’ll never forget the look of terror on her face when she knew I was really going through with it. I wish I could have frozen it in time so I could take it out and look at it again. I leaned over and kissed her forehead, then put the pillow back over her face and held it until she stopped struggling.”
“Vernon, how… how…” Rebecca couldn’t help it. She broke into tears.
The cynical smile reappeared on Vernon’s face. “It was very easy, my dear.”
“I never dreamed anyone could be so evil.” Rebecca shuddered.
He threw back his head and laughed.
Rebecca looked at him with disgust. “How could you enjoy killing someone like that?”
“I did enjoy it. Ever so much.” His mood changed suddenly. “You know, I think I’ll have you before I kill you, Rebecca. Mindy didn’t struggle, but I bet you will. That will be fun. I like it when women struggle.” He laughed again when he saw the look of panic on her face. “That’s the way, my love. Get scared. That’s the reaction I’m looking for.”
She took a deep breath and forced herself to stop crying. “All right. I accept the fact that I have to die.” She tried to smile, but couldn’t. “If you don’t tell me how you worked everything out, no one will ever hear your story. You’ll probably enjoy telling it, and then I’ll take it to my grave with me.”
“Maybe you’re smarter than I thought you were. You might have a good idea. I do like talking about it.” He looked at her. “Take off your clothes.”
“What?”
“Stand up and take off your clothes.”
She stood on wobbly legs.
“First, do you want to hear how I helped your father die?”
“No!” She stared into his emotionless eyes. “You couldn’t have.”
He laughed. “See, Rebecca? It was so easy to do these deeds and keep you happy at the same time. Start undressing.”
She fumbled with the buttons on the back of her sundress.
“I didn’t cause the old man’s first heart attack. That really happened, but I was afraid the doctors would help him pull through. Do you remember what good care you took of him? You and the nurses. You were so careful, making sure he got his medicine at the proper time. You saw he ate everything he should. And all the while, the nurses were feeding him sugar pills and dabs of arsenic.”
“No!”
“Oh, yes. I emptied all the capsules and filled them with sugar and arsenic.” He shook his head. “The old fool would have died sooner if all the pills had been capsules. I couldn’t do anything about the regular drugs.”
“But he thought so highly of you. Why did you—”
“I had to do it.” He turned his head and smiled again. “You’re surely smart enough to know I wouldn’t have been made president of Davidson Industries if he’d lived.” His voice turned irritable. “Turn around, and I’ll unbutton that damn dress for you.”
Automatically, she obeyed. In her mind, she knew Vernon was doing what he’d planned to do. Torturing her. “Why Daddy? He never did anything but push you ahead in your career because he liked you. He was such a good man.”
“He ruined my life. He and his whole damn family had to die. I knew that when I was a teenager.”
“What do you mean?” She had a hard time keeping Vernon’s tale straight. “You didn’t know him when you were a teenager.”
“Oh, yes, I did. I wrote to your father when I was in high school. I was a good student, and I made good grades. I asked him to give me the Davidson Scholarship so I could go to Wake Forest. He sent me back a form letter saying he didn’t make the choices for the scholarship. Then they gave the money to someone else. I ended up waiting tables and washing dishes to get through college. I promised myself then that he would pay for not giving me that scholarship. I’d had a rough life. I deserved it, but I didn’t get it.”
“A committee chooses the recipient of the Davidson scholarship. You’ve worked there long enough to know that.”
“Don’t give me that bull. I know how things work. If your precious daddy had told them to give it to me, they would have.” He paused and laughed. “Then there was that damn baby.”
She whirled and looked at him.
He laughed again. “Aunt Millicent was right. I pushed you down those stairs. I had to get rid of that child. I didn’t want a kid. That was all your idea. I was just lucky you didn’t die. The way your will was written, I’d have lost the company right then and there.”
“I can’t believe you’d want to kill your own chi
ld.”
“I’ve never had a child, and I’ve never wanted one. Of course, the endometriosis that had been giving you such a hard time tipped the scales. With all that going for me, and then when the doctor’s and I convinced you to have the operation, I knew I was safe. We would never have another child. I didn’t have to worry about you leaving your possessions to some spoiled brat.”
She burst into tears again. “You mean I didn’t really need the operation?”
“Oh, yes. You needed it. If you didn’t, they wouldn’t have done it. But your condition wasn’t life threatening like I convinced you it was. You might’ve had other children. Who knows? I just couldn’t take that chance. Knowing you, you’d have tried again and mothered dozens of the little beasts.”
“How cruel! You are insane. I hate you, Vernon Armfield.”
“Do you think I care?” He laughed a genuine laugh. “Quit standing there looking at me like a sick animal. Take off that dress.”
When she hesitated, he yelled, “I said take off the dress, damn it!”
She pulled the straps of the dress down and let it fall to the floor.
“Now, where did I get to? Oh, yes. Mindy. I’ve already told you how I killed her, but I didn’t tell you how I disposed of the body. That’s the good part. I wrapped her in a sheet and brought her home. Yes, my dear Rebecca. All the time you and Quimbley were fretting and scurrying around trying to find your sister, she lay cold and stiff in the big chest freezer in the basement. The one we never use anymore.”
“My Lord.” Rebecca closed her eyes and tried not to faint.
“Yes. That was fun. When your detective friend came around here asking questions, she was right there all the time. Now, take off your underwear.”
She fumbled with the back of her bra. “Why South Port?”
“Yes, South Port. Let me tell you about that. When I was about thirteen, my mother took me on a vacation. It was the only vacation the old drunk ever took me on. We went to Holden Beach. She picked up this man on the beach, and he ended up staying with us. One day they decided we’d go to South Port. I didn’t want to go because I’d met some children my age and was having too much fun. She let that son of a bitch beat me for talking back to them and then they made me go with them anyway. They found this old graveyard, and I wandered around while they drank a bottle of liquor and read the gravestones. When my mother found this one particular grave, she went bananas. She kept bellowing how beautiful it was and how she wanted nice things like that on her marker. She made me read it over and over, and then she made me swear I’d have a marker just like that put on her grave when she died. After a while, she told me to go to the other side of the graveyard and wait for her. From where I was, I could still see when she and that old man lay down on the grave.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You needn’t be.” He chuckled. “I got her back.”
“What do you mean?”
“When she died, I did the one thing she feared most. I had her cremated and scattered her ashes on the farm where she’d grown up. She hated that farm more than anything.”
Now nude, Rebecca met his eyes. He smiled at her.
“You’re pretty, Rebecca, but you’d be beautiful if you were a size six instead of a size fourteen. Too bad you don’t have the feminine assets to use the way Mindy did.” He motioned for her to sit beside him again.
He went on with his story. “I never forgot that grave, though. A woman like my mother didn’t deserve to be placed there, but when Mindy died, I decided it was the perfect place for a woman like her. You know, I even used part of its engraving when I’d have to be away from home. I’d paraphrase it and say, ‘If I had wings like a dove, I’d fly home to you, my sweet and loving wife’.”
“No wonder the writing on the grave sounded familiar. You’d said similar words to me.”
“I see how much they meant to you. You didn’t even remember where you’d heard them before.”
His mood suddenly changed again. He took her arms and nodded. “I’ve made up my mind. I know exactly what I’m going to do to you. Lay down on the bed.”
Knowing better than to protest, she did as she was told.
He removed his necktie and tied Rebecca’s right wrist to the tall bedpost, and used her bra to secure her other arm.
Rebecca’s brain grew numb. She almost wished he’d go ahead and kill her. But her survival instinct made her want to live. She knew that if she could just keep him talking until Nick or Erica arrived, she might have a chance. She glanced at the clock. It was only four-thirty.
Vernon opened a drawer and took out a pair of her stockings. He used them to tie her ankles to the posts at the bottom of the bed.
“Now to get on with my story.” He unbuttoned his shirt. “Getting Mindy’s body to South Port took some planning. The night I did it was the night your dear detective Quimbley showed up, by the way. Do you remember? We had dinner, and you became so sleepy we went to bed early? I’d put part of one of your sleeping pills into your food. Not enough to make you sleep all night, but enough to knock you out quickly. We went to bed, and you fell asleep in only a few minutes. I got up and set all the clocks up a few hours. Then I woke you and told you you’d been crying in your sleep. I went downstairs and got you some warm milk to help you relax. Remember?”
Without waiting for her to answer, he went on, “Actually, I wanted to be sure you’d swear I was here all night. The milk cemented it in your mind. You thought you awoke in the middle of the night, when actually it was still early. I put a couple of the sleeping pills into your milk, too, and they knocked you out for the rest of the night. I fixed the clocks back, got Mindy’s body out of the freezer, and took it to South Port. I was home in time to take a shower and come downstairs just as Wilma arrived. How was that for a plan?”
Repulsed, Rebecca stared at him. “You’re really mad aren’t you, Vernon?”
He took the rest of his clothes off. “No. I’m not mad. I’m just a lot smarter than most people.” He smiled at her. “Next, I’ll tell you about Aunt Millicent.”
Rebecca could not control the silent tears running down her cheeks. If Vernon noticed, he didn’t comment.
He was too caught up in telling his story. “The old bitch had to die, too. She was getting too close to the truth. Mindy had confided too many things to her. She was no match for me, though. Yes, the old fool was easy. I knew what time Wilma always goes to the market. Her schedule never changes. I also knew you were with that idiot detective in South Port. So I slipped home at the right time, dragged the old bird out of her room, and got a slight thrill when she realized she was about to die. I didn’t have time to toy with her, however. I just pushed her down the stairs and hid the jewelry. It’s too bad I didn’t get more of the good stuff. If I’d had more time to plan, I would’ve pulled off a better crime.”
“Poor Aunt Millicent. She was a dear person.”
“She was a meddling old fool!”
“What about Nick’s partner, Gordon Jones? Did you kill him, too?”
“Of course. He helped us sell the DVDs. He knew how involved I was, and Quimbley kept pushing him. I knew he’d probably break and tell everything. Killing him was so easy. I met him at Hanes Mall the night I went to check on Max Garvey. You know how close the mall is to the hospital. I knew someone would find his body sooner or later, but I didn’t care. Nobody could connect me to him. Killing him wasn’t that much fun, though. Not like it’s going to be to kill you, my dear wife.”
“What about the threatening call? Did you stage that, too?”
“I staged everything. I could be a movie director.” He laughed. “It’s always been so easy to fool you. I disguised my voice and called you from my room on my cell phone. You didn’t even recognize me.” A look of dismay crossed his face. “Too bad it has to end here. I had a wonderful plan to get you committed to some place where you’d be pampered and cared for until you actually went nuts. If only I’d had time to implement it. Ah, well…�
�� He sighed.
Rebecca didn’t bother to say anything. She figured it would do no good to anger him, and it might even make him kill her sooner.
“Now for you, my sweet. I have a new plan for you.” He got on the bed. “Would you like to hear it?”
She turned her head away.
“No? Well I’m going to tell you anyway. First, you think I’m going to make love to you, but I’m not. I took off my clothes so they wouldn’t get bloody. Second, I’m going downstairs to get a good, sharp knife. And third, I’m going to cut your pretty little heart right out of your body and leave it on top of your chest. Quimbley has been trying to win your heart ever since the first night he walked into this house. Now when your precious detective finds you, he’ll see your nakedness and your death at the same time. That should be punishment enough for him. After all, he was only doing his job.”
She jerked her arms and legs, but couldn’t free herself.
“Go on and struggle. I like to watch you trying to get away. Maybe I’ll change my mind and make love to you after all.”
“I won’t give you that pleasure.” She let her body become limp. “You can do what you want to me, Vernon. I will not struggle, and I will not show fear.”
He slapped her, and the sting tore through her face. But she refused to feel anything else. She looked out the window and let the memories of her childhood flood her mind as Vernon left to carry out his plan for her death.
Chapter 50
“Well, Nick. Looks like you were right,” Bernie said. “Brookmeyer is spilling his guts.”
“I thought he would. As soon as they get a little more, they’ll pick up Armfield.”
“Too bad we can’t nail him for the murders.” Bernie sat at his desk. “You really think he killed Mindy, don’t you?”
“Yes. I just can’t figure out how he got her body to South Port. Other than that, I think I can prove a case against him.”
“You don’t think he had help?”
“I’ve toyed with the idea, but I can’t come up with a name.”
Murder in North Carolina Page 21
