“Wow.” Brooke widened her eyes. She clutched Jax’s hand as she listened.
“Very interesting. What was your business, Sir, if I may ask?”
“It was for pleasure only. I was into investments, large real estate mostly. My job afforded me plenty of money and time off. But after Chelsea’s incident with Mollie….we stopped traveling. Chelsea’s care took most of our spare money.” He clutched his cigar.
“What happened with Mollie?” Jax asked biting his lip.
“Oh God, it was——” He trailed off as the front door slammed.
Heavy footfalls were heard against the marble floor in the entranceway.
A man with short dark hair appeared in the doorway. He appeared to be around Jax’s age. He too was wearing a suit.
“Terrible day. That fucking asshole Hodges still hasn’t signed the damn papers!” He dropped his briefcase on the floor.
“Who the hell are they?” He asked Mr. Goldstein.
“Friends of Chelsea’s.”
Jax and Brooke both waved their hands simultaneously.
“Not friends. She’s been stalking us.”
The man rolled his eyes.
“Oh, this is Tristan, my son. Chelsea’s brother.”
The trio shook hands.
“So, you’ve been graced with my sister’s troublesome presence. Good for you.” Tristan laughed. Brooke admired his handsome yet arrogant face. He had a Roman nose, chiseled chin, and bright green eyes.
“Not really. Your father was telling us about something that happened with Mollie---“
Suddenly, Mr. Goldstein stood up clutching his chest.
“I can’t.” He stumbled out of the room. Tristan ran after him. The couple watched as Tristan helped him up the winding staircase.
In a moment, Tristan returned.
“Is he okay? I’m sorry if I upset him.” Jax looked down. He hadn’t meant to disturb the old man.
“He’s fine. It’s a fucking stunt he pulls whenever someone asks him too much about Chelsea. Acts like he’s having a heart attack. He’s been doing it since he was in his forties. Can’t stand to talk about her.” Tristan flipped his hair back.
“If you don’t mind my asking, what happened with Mollie and Chelsea?”
“Oh, that. We were playing hide and seek. I was hiding when I heard Mollie screaming. I ran out to see Chelsea holding a huge branch over her head and beating Mollie in the head with it. I tackled her, but Mollie was hurt very badly. Chelsea fractured her skull.”
Jax felt sick. Even at the tender age of nine, Chelsea had been violent. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d killed Jessica and probably the model, too.
“Why did she do it?” Brooke asked.
“Who knows? Said she heard voices telling her Mollie was evil. Mollie had been her best friend since kindergarten! She had been fine until that day. My parents sent her away to some mental institution until she was thirteen.” Tristan fumbled in his suit jacket for a pack of cigarettes.
“Can I bum one?” Jax asked his mouth watering for a cigarette.
“Sure.”
They both lit up and exhaled the smoke. Brooke coughed waving her hand.
“The old man hates it when I smoke, but he puffs away on those damned cigars like they were going out of style.”
“So are you still in contact with Chelsea?”
Tristan shook his head exhaling his smoke.
“No. I haven’t seen her in a few years. She didn’t even come to Mom’s funeral. It’s been a mess ever since the Mollie incident. I didn’t even want to call her my sister for a while. I just didn’t get her. She always kept talking about ‘the voices’. Who the hell are these voices? I’d ask her. But she never told me.”
Tristan finished his cigarette and crushed the butt in a marble ashtray.
“I don’t know. She’s just crazy. What’s she done to you?”
Brooke bit her lip looking down.
“I’m an author, Tristan. I don’t know if you’ve heard of me. I’m Jax Paulson.”
His eyes widened.
“Oh my God, you’re kidding. I’ve seen you on TMZ! No wonder you look familiar.” Tristan beamed.
“Well, your sister has been stalking me. It’s a very long story, but a few nights ago she followed my girlfriend running her off the road nearly killing her.”
“Wow. I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m not surprised. Guess you’ve seen for yourself my sister is quite attractive. She had lots of boyfriends, but as you know sometimes things go wrong in relationships. The guy would end it and she’d start following them.”
Jax sank back into the chair. The room was becoming stiflingly hot. He felt as though he couldn’t breathe.
“Well, Tristan, there have been some deaths involved.”
Tristan paled. He gripped the arms of the chair tightly.
“Who? What happened?”
Jax cleared his throat.
“My publicist, Jessica was found dead three weeks ago shot to death in her office. It’s a long story, but Chelsea had assumed the identity of a woman working for Jessica by the name of Sarah Bender.”
Tristan sat speechless. Outside, snow began to fall swirling around the window blanketing it with white.
“Anyway, Jessica was my publicist. She came up with a plan to drum up publicity for my latest book by having someone stalk me. The woman was named Sarah Bender, a staff editor at Meridian where Jessica was employed. I assumed the woman following me was Sarah, but turns out it was your sister, Chelsea. I’m here to find out more about Chelsea as now Jessica is dead as is a model, Brianna Jaynes I had a date with about two months ago.”
“My God,” he whispered his hand covering his mouth.
“I don’t know for sure if it’s her, but it’s looking more and more like that to me. Given that she’s been using a fake name for months, I don’t know what to think.”
“What about the real Sarah Bender?”
Brooke shook her head.
“That’s another thing. We found out from her Facebook page that she hasn’t been seen for months.”
Tristan stood up and began to pace. His dress shoes clicked across the floor.
“I hate to say it, but that sounds like Chelsea. For a while after she was released from the institution, things went all right. In high school, she was actually normal. She was a pretty, popular cheerleader. We actually got along and I began to think my sister was actually coming back to me. But after college, things started to go downhill. She started complaining of hearing the voices again. My parents took her to several psychiatrists trying to find a medication that worked. Nothing seemed to help. She started missing work and not taking care of herself. She’d go for weeks without bathing.” Tristan paused lighting another cigarette.
Brooke wrinkled her nose at the thought.
“Chelsea began a sad, slow descent into madness, it seemed. The last time my parents saw her was when they went to her apartment. The landlord had called them complaining about an offensive odor coming from her place. She hadn’t been seen in days. There were reports from dozens of tenants alleging strange behavior from her.”
“Like what?” Jax asked sitting on the edge of his seat.
“Riding the elevators all hours of the night for hours at a time. Walking around carrying a necklace with an ankh symbol asking people about a pyramid.”
Brooke’s heart thudded in her chest. Chelsea was demanding to know about a pyramid when she approached her in the store the other day.
“Pyramid? What’s that all about?” Brooke asked.
Tristan shook his head.
“I don’t know. Maybe it was because my parents took us to see the Great Pyramid when we were kids. Who knew what she was thinking? Anyway, the landlord called my parents to come see if they could help her. Reluctantly, I agreed to go with them. I wish to God I hadn’t. When we got there, we could smell the atrocious odor from her apartment before we even got to her floor. After pounding on the door, the super ag
reed to just let us in.”
Tristan took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled the smoke. His hands were shaking.
“When we got inside, it looked like a tornado had hit the place. Furniture was overturned and trash littered the floor. The whole place reeked of rotting meat so badly I nearly passed out. My parents were horrified. Clothes were strewn about the place, the curtains were torn from the windows. All over the walls Chelsea had scribbled pyramids and the words ‘No’ and ‘Stop’. In the kitchen, the refrigerator was full of rotting meat. I vomited right on the spot. My mother nearly fainted. We continued walking through the place looking for Chelsea.”
Tristan ground out his cigarette.
“She was lying naked on a mattress soaked in urine. The odor was so bad, oh God, I still remember it.” Tristan winced.
“My God,” Jax whispered.
“She was clutching a spoiled pork chop in her fist. No one could understand why she was doing this. She appeared not to understand why we were so upset. After getting her out of there, my parents had her sent to a mental hospital.”
Brooke’s eyes were wide with fear.
“But as always, she got out. She hadn’t hurt anyone so they couldn’t keep her. She was put on new medicine and it seemed to work. She started to be able to function again. She even got a new job, I heard. She harbored a great deal of resentment towards my parents and wouldn’t talk to them anymore.”
“That’s terrible.”
“So we all washed our hands of her. She moved out of the city and last I heard was doing well. She stayed on her meds, I guess.”
“Look, Tristan, I don’t really know what to make of all this. It sounds as though she’s had a long history of mental illness. Now she’s after me and my girlfriend. We don’t know what to do anymore. My publicist is dead. Who knows what she’ll do next?”
“I’m sorry, Jax, I wish I could help. I can give you her last known address, but we’re not in contact anymore. She’s not welcome here. Have you gone to the police?” Tristan sat down in the chair.
Brooke watched the snow accumulate on the windowsill. She feared they may run into a nasty storm if they didn’t leave soon.
“Yes, I have. They’re supposed to be checking her out, but that doesn’t exactly make me feel safe. I thought maybe you and your parents could give me insight which you have. I guess the best thing to do is just watch out for her.” Jax sighed.
“I would. She’s unpredictable that’s for sure.”
Jax and Brooke stood to leave.
“Thank you, Tristan for your time. I hope for the best.” Jax tried to smile.
Tristan nodded.
“Best of luck to you. Stay safe.”
If only it were that easy.
22
The lights were turned off inside Chelsea’s house. Everything was dark as they approached.
“Are you sure this is her house?”
“It’s the address Tristan gave me. This is the one.” Jax pointed to the numbers.
“What if she comes home?”
“She won’t. She stays at that damn spa for at least four hours according to the massage therapist.”
Trying the back door, Jax found it unlocked. The inside of her place smelled heavily of that same perfume Brooke had smelled the other day.
Poison.
But there was another underlying odor. A terrible rotting stench.
Jax flipped a switch and light illuminated the place. Everything was quite neat and organized. If Chelsea had lost it years ago like Tristan claimed, she seemed to be much better now. Looking through her house, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Tasteful modern furniture decorated the place. The floors were hardwood and polished to a shine.
They made their way back into Chelsea’s bedroom where a large king size bed sat in the middle of the room. It was neatly made with a blue and white comforter. A huge bookshelf sat in the corner of the room.
On it was every book Jax had ever written. Inside them there was an inscription from Jax.
“When did you sign a book for her, Jax?”
“I don’t recall. It must’ve been at a public signing. Maybe she bought them online. If you notice, her name isn’t in here. These were probably books I just signed generically.”
The books appeared in pristine condition as if she never read them.
“That’s odd. I know she’s read all my work.”
Brooke shrugged.
“She probably read the ebook version. Maybe these are her collector’s editions.”
After glancing through her closet and not noticing anything out of the ordinary, the couple turned to walk down the hallway.
“This is the most normal looking place I’ve been in. Nothing at all weird.” The couple was surprised.
The strange odor began to get worse. Brooke gagged slightly.
“What the hell is that smell?”
Jax wrinkled his nose.
“It’s terrible.”
Then, as they turned the other way, Brooke noticed a room they hadn’t seen.
She turned the knob, but it appeared stuck.
“What the hell?”
Jax twisted and turned the knob, but it wouldn’t budge. He pushed hard against the door and he fell into the room. Brooke switched the light on. She gasped falling back into the hallway.
“Oh my God,” Brooke cried.
The entire room was wallpapered with pages from books. Jax scrambled to his knees and looked more closely at the pages.
Each page was from one of his books!
They had carefully been lacquered onto the walls. Jax estimated the room to be about 20 x 19. And every single inch was covered with pages from his books.
The lone piece of furniture in the huge room was a small white dresser. It was covered in pictures of Jax.
“Jax, my God, she’s deeply, deeply disturbed.” Brooke walked through the room running her hands over the papered walls.
For a moment, he said nothing. He stood transfixed. Part of him wanted to run screaming out of the room, out of New York, and back to his cozy home. The other part of him couldn’t wait to get to his laptop and begin writing.
The horrifying room was an inspiration.
“I can’t imagine how long this must’ve taken her. Why would she do this?”
“The voices told her to I would imagine.” Jax replied dryly.
“Let’s see if she did the closet too.” Brooke opened the door. The horrid stench was overpowering and struck her in the face. There was a tiny door inside the closet. Brooke turned the knob and nearly fainted.
Her breath sucked in as she staggered back clasping her hand over her mouth. She retched several times and vomited sobbing uncontrollably as she fled the room.
An awful, sickening stench began to fill the room. Immediately, Jax clasped his hand over his nose and mouth. He looked into the closet.
My God, this was…this was…..
Disturbed.
Inside the closet was another doorway. The odor was so intense Jax felt bile rise in his throat. It was the worst thing he’d ever smelled.
As he pushed his way into the secret room, his eyes widened in horror as he saw what had made Brooke vomit.
There inside the tiny room was a double sized bed. Lying in the middle of the bed was a decomposed body. The horror of that coupled with the intensely foul odor caused him to vomit immediately.
Wiping his mouth, he forced himself to look further. The sheets around the body were soaked in a dark fluid. The body appeared to have been there for several months. Above the body on the wall of the room a huge pyramid had been crudely drawn with chalk with the words ‘Who lies beneath the shadow of the pyramid?’
As Jax struggled to comprehend the terrifying scene, his gaze fell to between the body’s legs. There perched upright like a man’s erect cock was a flesh colored dildo. Its’ tip was covered in dried blood.
Shaking uncontrollably, Jax whipped off his shirt to cover his mouth
and nose. Something else struck him as odd.
In the space next to the body, there was a clean sheet relatively fresh and untouched from the wretchedness of the corpse. A small pillow with blue flowered print pillowcase was next to the corpse.
As if she’d been sleeping next to it.
Fucking it even.
The room suddenly became stiflingly small. He and the corpse were alone together in this room which had become a tomb.
For the living and the dead.
Suddenly, Jax found his voice and screamed. He raced from the room down the hall out into the living room where he found Brooke.
She was pale and shaken. Her face wet with tears.
“Jax, who the hell is that?” She whispered.
He shook his head.
“I can’t…oh my God, Brooke, I can’t.” He sobbed.
The couple raced from the house outside. They both breathed in the fresh air a moment before speaking.
“We have to call the police now. This has gone….far beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined. She’s more than disturbed, she’s—“
“Evil.” Brooke filled in.
Jax nodded dialing 911.
The stench of death is something that mere soap and water cannot overcome, thought Jax as he scrubbed at his body. It had been a week and he still smelled the horrible stench of that body. Brooke was beside herself and had remained in the hotel room ever since returning from Chelsea’s house.
The phone vibrated as Jax walked back into the bedroom.
“Jax Paulson, this is Detective Colquitt. I was calling to let you know we’ve made a positive identification on the body found in Chelsea Goldstein’s house. It was Sarah Bender.”
Jax felt the phone slip through his hands crashing to the floor. Brooke sat up.
“What is it, Jax?”
He closed his eyes trying to swallow his horror.
“The body….it was Sarah Bender.”
23
“The body of missing editor from Meridian International, Sarah Bender was discovered today in a local house. Bender had been reported missing by family and friends several months ago. The house belonged to Chelsea Goldstein who is now a suspect in Bender’s murder. She should be considered armed and dangerous.”
Obsessed Page 12
