Figure Skating Mystery Series: 5 Books in 1

by Alina Adams

  "Well" — she straightened up from her crouch and sat down on the bed, next to Jeremy — "he told me it was Pandora paying him off for having killed Allison Adler."

  "He just told you that?" Craig was having a hard time believing it. "Just out of the blue, for no reason, he came up and told you he was now a hired contract killer. What, was he passing out business cards?"

  "Not exactly. I figured out he was the one who killed Allie, confronted him, and while he didn't exactly confess, he did point out that even if I was right, I had no hard evidence, just conjecture."

  "How did you figure it out?"

  She told him about the incriminating glove fluff.

  "Wow," Craig said.

  "Yeah. Not exactly something you'd see on CSI."

  "So that's all you've got?"

  "Well, that and him saying Jeremy saw Pandora paying him off."

  "I wonder why he did that."

  "I assumed it was so I'd know he wasn't the mastermind. He was just paying off a debt. Pandora's the one with the motive."

  "What I mean is, telling you about Jeremy just adds one more person who can testify against him. Sounds like a pretty foolish thing to do."

  "Not necessarily. All Jeremy knows for a fact is that Pandora gave Sebi money. No big deal — she's been his sponsor for years, everyone knows that. It wouldn't prove anything. I think Sebi told me just so I'd focus the rest of my investigation on Pandora."

  "You do that," Craig said, standing up. "You do that. And in the meantime, I am going to track down Sebastian Vama and rip his intestines out through his nostrils for terrorizing my child."

  "Actually, Craig — "

  "What?'

  "I have a better idea. How'd you like to help me nail him for murder?"

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The next morning, Bex blew off Senior Men's Long Program practice (Gil would just have to deal) in favor of a return visit to the home of Pandora Westby and Idan Ben- Golan. At first Craig insisted on coming along, too.

  The previous night, they'd conferred outside the door of his hotel room, speaking in whispers in case the walls had ears — or Jeremy wasn't quite as sound asleep as he seemed.

  "I'm going with you tomorrow," Craig said. "They are not getting away with this. I may have seemed calm in there a minute ago, but believe me, the thought of my kid riding around in a car with a killer — I thought I was going to throw up."

  "I know. Poor Jeremy. But it's okay, now, Craig. It's over."

  "How do you figure? Sebastian Vama is still out there, walking around, free as a bird, not to mention Pandora Westby and God knows who else was in on this."

  "I'll confront her. I'll see if I can get her to confess and then — "

  "What? Then what? She can tell you whatever she wants, you've still got no evidence. It's Sebi all over again."

  "Give me a chance to play one against the other."

  "I'd rather just bang their skulls one against the other. Might yield better results."

  "And when you're sent to prison, Jeremy will have no parents left."

  "I see your point." He sighed, then smiled ruefully. "Promise you'll keep me posted?"

  "I promise. This isn't over, Craig. I meant what I said in there. I'm going to get these guys. And I'm expecting you to help."

  "Any time."

  "Thanks."

  "You're welcome."

  "No problem."

  "So.. ."

  Their conversation was officially over again. To anyone with ears, or even an average ability to read lips, the conversation had clearly been over for about five clichés now. And yet, neither Bex nor Craig had budged an inch.

  "So," he repeated.

  "Yes."

  "You still twenty-four?"

  "About six hours more than the last time we discussed it, though."

  "Oh, well, sure, I can see the difference."

  "You're saying I'm looking older?"

  "More mature, is what I meant."

  "Well, fine then."

  "Good."

  She turned around to leave. She turned very slowly.

  Which is why she was barely down the hall, not even halfway to the elevator, when she heard Craig call, "Bex?"

  "Yeah?"

  "This conversation, you know, it's not really over. More like a commercial break."

  "I know," she said.

  Of course, the entire time that she was being (hopefully) adorable and flirtatious, Bex actually had no idea what she knew, or even what the few things that she did know, actually meant. Something had happened between her and Craig that afternoon, that part was obvious (the kiss kind of gave it away). But what it was exactly, she had no clue. So Bex just stuck with the adorable and flirtatious. Until something better came along.

  For her confrontation with Pandora Westby, though, Bex swallowed the adorable and went with stern. Stern was always a good one.

  It lasted from the time Bex rang the doorbell, encountered Pandora, and talked her way into being invited inside. It screeched to a halt as soon as Bex stepped into the living room and came face to face with the vision of Pandora sitting on a blue blanket spread out on the floor, Omri on his back, kicking his arms and legs and chortling at the various colorful objects Pandora was goo-goo-ga-gaaing in his face.

  Bex's first thought was... Aw, cute baby.

  Her next one was... Aw, cute Pandora playing with cute baby.

  Her third was... This doesn't seem right.

  At that point, Bex decided to speak. She said, "I had a very interesting chat with Sebi Vama yesterday."

  That name definitely got her attention. Pandora looked up with a start; the cute bunny on a string (in light of what had happened to Omri's mother, it seemed a bit in bad taste to Bex) went slack.

  "Sebi," she repeated.

  "And then I followed up with Jeremy Hunt. You know, his dad, Craig, was very surprised when you just called out of the blue offering sponsorship."

  Pandora's voice shook as she insisted, "That was sincere. Jeremy is a wonderful skater."

  "He is. Probably why you and Sebi shouldn't have scared the hell out of him right before his first National competition. You know, being afraid for your dad's life can make anyone a little unsteady on the ice."

  "What are you talking — "

  "You mean Sebi didn't tell you? Yeah, he threatened a thirteen-year-old boy with killing his father if Jeremy didn't keep his mouth shut about witnessing your little financial exchange the other day."

  "He didn't — "

  "Feel free to call up Jeremy Hunt and ask. His father has a few words he'd like to share with you as well."

  "Sebi..." Pandora stood up, stepping over Omri and lowering her voice, as if the baby could understand a word she said. "Sebi told me he just promised Jeremy money for his skating. He didn't say anything about a threat."

  "Yeah, who would have guessed a hired killer could be a liar, too?"

  "A what? Who? What are you talking about?"

  "Sebi Vama."

  "Yes, I understand, but what about him? Why did you call him a hired — "

  "Sebi told me you hired him to kill Allison and make it look like a suicide."

  At that, Pandora actually stumbled. She didn't move, her legs simply gave out, and she needed to grab a couch's armrest with one hand and the glass coffee table with the other to steady herself. While down there, she looked guiltily at Omri, then quickly away again. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out.

  Bex decided to help. She said, "I know Sebi killed Allie. The handprints on her body were in Killian position. Who else would automatically lift Allie in that position, except for Sebi?"

  "Sebi killed Allie?" Pandora asked, gasping.

  Her genuine confusion inspired uneasy stirrings of the same in Bex. "If you didn't believe he went through with it, why did you give him the money?"

  "Went through with what?"

  "Killing Allison."

  "I had no idea Sebi killed her!"

  "
What, did you think you got lucky? That she beat him to the punch and hung herself before he could go through with it?"

  "Why would I want Allie dead?"

  "Because she had an affair with your husband!" Bex wondered why she was the one left to point out the obvious. "I mean, I know what you said and how you acted in court. But I also remember what you said here the night before that. You acted all Stepmother of the Year for the judge so Idan wouldn't lose custody of Omri. But you were furious; you told me so yourself."

  "That was just so you'd believe us."

  "Believe you about what?"

  Pandora straightened up and swept Omri into her arms. With great effort, the baby lifted his wobbly head to check who it was, caught sight of Pandora, and, with a contented sigh, nestled against her neck. She covered him with the blanket they'd just been playing on and told Bex, "You don't understand."

  "Explain it to me."

  "We didn't think Ralph Adler would take this to court. Quite frankly, we never factored him into the equation. It was wrong of us, we should have known, considering how obsessed he was with Allison, that he'd be obsessed with Omri, too. But we naively believed he'd washed his hands of her completely. Idan and I thought the only challenge would come from Coop. Well, Tess using Coop, anyway. And we needed people to believe that Idan was the father. We thought, what better way to drive our point home than to have me be up in arms about their affair."

  "You mean you weren't?"

  "I mean" — Pandora sighed, kissing the top of Omri's head — "there was no affair."

  Bex said, "Okay. You're right. I don't understand at all."

  "That's enough!" The male voice booming down a flight of stairs, complete with accompanying footsteps, was unmistakable.

  Idan told Bex, "That is enough browbeating of my wife. Sebastian Vama is a liar and an opportunist. You cannot believe a word he says. Certainly not about Pandora."

  "Sounds like you guys have done a share of lying yourselves recently."

  "We had reasons."

  "Idan..." Pandora began.

  "No. She will listen, and she will understand. Miss Levy, my wife is a wonderful person. She is the most loving, generous, caring woman I have ever known. Think of all of those skaters whom she supports, and asks for nothing in return."

  "Well... Sebi said — "

  "And asks for nothing in return," Idan thundered. "Not a penny, not a favor, not even a thank-you note. She does it because she loves skating and because she wants to help talented young people reach their potential."

  Bex thought of Allie swinging dead from a belt and said nothing.

  "For a woman like this, I would do anything. Anything, do you hear me?"

  And suddenly, Allie swinging from that belt took on a whole new meaning.

  "Idan, are you saying that you're the one who actually — "

  "I am saying that Pandora Westby Ben-Golan deserves anything her heart desires. Unfortunately, the one thing she has been wanting this last year that she has not been able to have, is a baby."

  Bex looked at Omri. And very disparate puzzle pieces slowly began to drift toward each other through the swampland of her brain.

  "So you and Allie... for Pandora?"

  "No! Will you please remain quiet until I finish speaking. Your wild guesses are not only intrusive, they are also inaccurate."

  "Okay," Bex agreed. No way was she missing the conclusion to this tale.

  "Pandora very much wanted a child. She has for many years now. We were on the waiting list of several private adoption attorneys, but the wait, it was getting very difficult. And then Allison came to us, already pregnant — "

  "So the baby isn't yours?"

  "Already pregnant, Miss Levy. She didn't know what to do. She was terrified of telling Ralph. She knew how invested he was in her career, he would be furious. And she did not want to tell Coop."

  "Why not?"

  "Because he would insist on their getting married. And if he didn't, well, then, she knew that Tess would. And it's not what Allison wanted. The marriage would have been a complete charade. Not to mention the fact that she was nineteen, she truly had no interest in raising a child at all."

  "So you and Pandora decided to adopt Allie's baby?"

  "She lived with us. We paid all of her expenses. She helped Pandora design the nursery, and she signed all the papers in advance, giving us custody."

  "Did she change her mind at the last minute? Is that it? Is that why you killed her? Because she decided not to let you have the baby?"

  "I did not kill Allison. She gave birth to Omri six weeks ago. She recovered from the birth in our home, and once she was back on her feet, we gave her money to leave Los Angeles and start a new life. It was all worked out. Allie would leave town, and Pandora and I would introduce the world to the baby we'd recently adopted. There should have been no reason to connect the two."

  "But then Allie was murdered."

  "Yes. She was at the arena to say good-bye. It was her idea; she wanted to see everyone for the last time. Even if they did not see her. She was saying good-bye to her old life before starting a new one. She had Omri with her for the last time. She was not conflicted over giving him up. She knew she had done the right thing."

  "Except that then somebody killed her. And suddenly everybody knew that your new baby was Allison's."

  "Yes. This is correct. Once that information was out, Coop became a problem. Even with Allie's signature on the adoption papers, he could still challenge us. That is why we decided it would be easier simply to claim that the child was my own. Allie had even planned for this possibility by listing me as Omri's father on the birth certificate. There, you see, even more proof that she wanted us to have him. She would have never named me as the legal father if she was reconsidering giving Omri to us. We thought that would be enough."

  "I don't understand," Bex said. "The paternity test, it showed you were the — "

  Idan shrugged.

  Pandora said, "That's where Sebi comes in."

  "What?" Bex shrieked. "Sebi is the father?"

  At that, both Idan and Pandora couldn't help laughing.

  "No," they said nearly in unison, then quickly quieted.

  Pandora said, "He helped us. That's what I was paying him for. That's what Jeremy Hunt saw. We asked Sebi to help us fake the paternity test."

  "I don't understand. I saw you swipe your own cheek."

  "I was very careful. The Q-tip was prepared in advance. It never touched my mouth."

  "But... the box was sealed. I saw you open it."

  "Yes, Bex, glue is a very difficult task to master. There is no way that anyone could open a box, put in a pre-prepared swab, with the appropriate DNA, and reseal it."

  Okay, so she was an idiot, that part was crystal clear. But she still wanted to know, "How did Sebi — "

  "We needed Coop's DNA. We needed, preferably, some saliva and cheek cells from him. So Sebi — "

  "Kissed him!" Bex exclaimed. She may have been an idiot, but she also knew what she saw. "Sebi kissed Coop and got you the DNA sample you needed."

  "My understanding is that he also bit him," Idan confessed distastefully. “To ensure a sufficient amount."

  "That's gross."

  "He was adequately compensated," Idan snapped.

  "But if he was working for you, why, at the hearing, did he make such a big deal of Coop being Omri's father?"

  "Mr. Sebastian Vama works for the highest bidder. I can only assume Tess also offered him adequate compensation."

  Pandora said, "If you believe Sebastian killed Allison, I really can offer you no evidence to the contrary. All I can tell you is, it was not at my behest."

  "Sebi says—"

  "Fuck Sebi," Idan offered, this time without raising his voice. "Sebi claims that my wife hired him to kill Allison because she was jealous over our affair? Fine; I shall take a second paternity test to prove that I am not Omri's father. That should blow his ridiculous accusation out of the water."
/>
  "You could lose Omri," Bex pointed out.

  "Yes." His face was grim. "I know."

  "You weren't there the first day," Bex told Craig later that morning as they waited for Jeremy to finish getting changed in the locker room after practice. "When Idan came busting in on us and the police, looking for Omri, he was crazed. I really believed he was Omri's father. I really believed he loved him. But if he's not the biological — "

  Craig asked, "Does Idan love his wife?"

  "Sure sounded like he did."

  "Does this child make his wife happy?"

  "Sure looked like he did."

  "Then he loves the kid. It's real simple."

  Bex said sheepishly, "I guess you'd know."

  "Yup."

  "No one would ever guess you weren't Jeremy's real father."

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a prince, that's neither here nor there," he said. "How are we going to nail Vama? Because, whether Pandora paid him off or someone else did — "

  "Someone like Tess, maybe? Idan said Allie didn't want to marry Coop, that she didn't want to live a lie. Maybe Tess saw his coming off like a deadbeat dad to the public as a problem for her press kit. A problem she could only think of one way to fix."

  "Doesn't matter. Sebi's the one I want. He's the menace here. He's the killer. I want him off the street, by any means necessary."

  "Well, maybe I can get him to confess to me again. He was pretty forthcoming the first time I asked. I know he was just messing with me, he knew there was nothing I could do about it, he even said as much. But maybe now that I've got his guard down, if I could get his confession on tape and — "

  "Still inadmissible," Craig said. "A person has to give you permission to be recorded for it to count."

  "You know a lot about the law."

  "It's screwed me over enough times."

  "You mean Rachel?'

  "Yes. I mean Rachel." From the look on Bex's face at the mention of his wife's name, Craig added, "We can talk about my late wife at length some other time. We can rehash all of my feelings for her and about her death. But not now. Now we are going to nail Sebastian Vama's sick, twisted, bastard hide to the wall. You with me?"