One Way Ticket (A Smith and Hughes Mystery Book 1)

by Jay Forman

  “Hello, Lee.” Pam spoke in barely more than a whisper.

  I’d seen people who were close to death before, but Pam wasn’t just close. She was almost there.

  “Jack didn’t tell you, did he? I can tell by the shocked looked on your face. Breast cancer. Final stages.”

  “I’m sorry, Pam. Truly sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. For so long I’d fantasized about being able to make her pay for all the horrible words she’d spewed at and about me. But the woman in front of me was already in more pain, both physical and emotional, than any living creature should ever have to endure.

  Jack hobbled over to her and gave her a gentle hug. “I’m so sorry about Ethan, Pam.”

  “Thank you.” She kissed him on the cheek. Her lips were grey. “Is that why you’ve come? Erica said you were looking into Kayla’s death.”

  “Actually, we were hoping to have a word with Greg.”

  “Why?” For the first time there was strength in her voice. Not much, but some. She was on the defensive. “Do you want to ask him about Allamanda Cay?”

  “Pam, investing is the last thing on my mind right now. Lee and I are trying to find out why Kayla and Ethan have both been killed.”

  She sucked in a breath and I couldn’t be sure if it was because she was shocked by what Jack had said, or if she was having trouble breathing. “Was Kayla killed, too?”

  “We don’t know for sure. That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

  “Greg didn’t have anything to do with Kayla’s death.” The defensive tone in her voice was gaining strength.

  “But he was Kayla’s riding teacher, right?” I finally joined in the conversation. I could tell that Jack was struggling to come up with a reason for why we wanted to talk to Greg. “We wondered if maybe she said something to him about whatever she was going through.”

  “If she did he didn’t mention it to me.” She looked at me for what felt like hours, but I knew it was less than a minute. “I’m sorry for what we did to you, Lee.”

  Something inside me broke. I’d wanted to hear those words for so long, but not like this.

  “You probably think I’m getting what I deserve; Erica too, after the way we treated you.”

  “No.” I wished many things for both of them, but never the death of their children.

  “Oh go on, say it.” Defiant, bossy Pam hadn’t faded away completely.

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “Tell me how awful I was, yell at me. Do something! Don’t just stand there. Fight back!”

  But the fight didn’t seem that important anymore. Hate and anger were such simple, straightforward emotions. They were easy to deal with. I couldn’t have put a name to any of the emotions in the chaotic mess that was swirling around inside me. “I wish I’d fought back when it happened, but I didn’t know how to.”

  Pam pulled a carrot out of her pocket and held it in the palm of her hand for the horse. “There you go, Montgomery. Erica was so jealous of you. We both were, actually.”

  “Jealous? Of what?” That was that last motive I ever, ever would have suspected for their actions.

  “Please!” She stared at me with disbelief.

  “You both had everything and I came to Berkshire with nothing, just me.”

  “You had what every girl wanted – self-confidence, looks, smarts, and Jack.”

  Maybe the drugs she was taking were clouding her memories? “I wasn’t self-confident. Anything but! I was terrified. I didn’t know anyone. I was the outsider until Jack started talking to me. Then you all started acting like I was your friend, part of the group. But you turned on me and I was more alone than I’d ever been, except for Jack’s friendship.”

  “But you did have Jack. You had him from the minute you walked into Berkshire. And when you slipped up and showed some weakness we just did what we’d been trained to do – whatever it took to rise to the top.” She kissed her horse and rubbed his head one more time. “We were mean. You were sad. I’ve apologised. Tick another thing off my Things to do before I Die list.”

  I was sad? The fight inside me started to quickly gain some strength. Sad? Really? I was suicidal! I was so miserable that I wanted to die. No simple “sorry” could rinse away that much misery.

  “I don’t have the time or the strength to rehash everything. It’s history. I’m dying and my son’s dead. And now it’s you, of all people, who might be able to find the answer to the only question that still matters to me – who took my son away from me. Are you going to do that or not?” The tears welling in her eyes weakened my instantaneous gut reaction to her belittling of the impact her actions, and Erica’s, had on me.

  I had a choice to make. It was the perfect opportunity to strike back, to hit her while she was weak ... something I’d often fantasized about doing. It’s what she and Erica had done to me. But I liked to think I was a better person than either of them. The time had come to prove it, if only to myself. “I’m going to try to find out what happened to your son.” I couldn’t promise more. And I couldn’t believe I was making such an important promise to Pam Grey.

  “So, Greg? Is he around?” Jack saved me from having to say anything more. I wouldn’t have known what to say anyway.

  “He went up to the house, but he should be back any minute.” The horse in the stall across from us whinnied. “That’s Ernie, Kayla’s horse. She loved him so much. I don’t know what Erica’s going to do about him now.”

  Ernie was a Blood Bay. He stood slightly taller than Pam’s horse. I walked over to say hello to him, and to put some more distance between Pam and me. He nuzzled me and seemed to be happy to be getting some attention. Was he missing Kayla? She’d loved her little panda bear, Bert, enough to hug him into a lumpy shape. Had she loved Ernie just as much?

  “Erica just bought Kayla an Argentinean polo pony for Allamanda. Kayla was so excited. She was going to call him Elmo. He’s a real beauty. His dam was on the World Champion team in 2011.”

  “Jack!” A jockey-small man shouted from the other end of the stable as he walked quickly toward us. “What brings you here?” He looked almost tall when he stood next to shrinking Pam.

  “Just wanted to ask you a couple of questions...,”

  “This is Lee Smith. She was in our class at Berkshire,” Pam introduced me to her husband. “She’s working with Jack. They’re here to ask you about Kayla because they think her death might be related to Ethan’s.”

  “Nice to meet you.” He held his hand out and I had to struggle to keep focused on it, shaking it, looking at his face instead of his legs. He was wearing shorts. His muscular little body was alive with nervous energy, he couldn’t keep still. “Kayla was a great girl. Damn fine rider, too. What can I tell you?”

  I wanted to look at his knees. I didn’t want to look at his knees. No matter what Pam had done, she didn’t deserve to have the last piece of her world crumble. Not now. I’d let my hatred of her blind me to whatever insecurities she may have had when we were at Berkshire. I wasn’t going to let my pity for her blind me now. I looked down.

  A faded scar that looked like a sideways Omega symbol curved around the outside of his left kneecap.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jack warmed Greg up by making small talk about Allamanda. I desperately wanted him to look down, to see what I’d just seen. If he’d noticed the scar he was sure doing a good job of not reacting to it.

  “...actually, Lee was just there, on Allamanda, but she didn’t see any construction.”

  Greg’s eyes shot sideways to look at me. To be more accurate, they zoomed in on my breasts. I guess they didn’t impress him because he quickly looked up at my face. “Well, it’s a big island. We’ve started with the marina and clubhouse on the south end. You were probably at the north end, right?”

  “I guess so. I’m not very good at compass directions.” It was Jack’s turn to look at me, but his eyes didn’t take a chest detour en route. He knew darn well that I was like a human
compass. There were times when I didn’t know where I was going, but I always knew where I was and where I’d been. I’d been on the south end of Allamanda Cay. Simon made a point of taking us to the south end because he said that’s where the best reefs were. Even if I was remembering Simon’s comments wrong, I clearly remembered our first view of the island from the boat that took us there from San Salvador. I’d gone camera crazy because the image had reminded me of the photographs I’d taken on my first morning arrival at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Sure, there wasn’t a massive stone temple complex on the island, but the sea had been mirror flat that day and the aquamarine water had perfectly reflected the palm trees on the island, just like the water around Angkor Wat reflected the temple spires at sunrise. There definitely hadn’t been any sign of a marina being built in the crescent bay that welcomed visitors coming from the south.

  “It must be a big loss, having Christophe de Corneille back out at this stage. Was Kayla upset about that? Was she a golfer as well as a rider?”

  Where was Jack going with this line of questioning? And why was he making it sound as if Jocelyn’s father had chosen to back out of the contract? I’d distinctly heard him say that the contract “fell through” and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

  Greg tried to hide his surprise at Jack’s question with brutally insensitive sarcasm. “She didn’t kill herself because of a change in golf course designers, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Not a single muscle moved on Jack’s face. He just continued to stare at Greg.

  “And losing Christophe was no biggie. Can’t blame him for cashing in on those Arabs and their oil money. I’ve got a few other designers lined up already. I take it you’re interested in one of the properties that back onto the course? Not an ocean front lot?”

  Jack wasn’t interested in any lot, but Greg didn’t know that. Even if Jack had been he never would have wanted a property that overlooked a golf course. He thought playing eighteen holes was slightly less exciting than watching eighteen snails run a marathon.

  “I’m still thinking about it.”

  “I’m going to go back to the house,” Pam said as she cupped her hand over the stall gate and used it to help support herself as she turned around. “I need to lie down.”

  “You want me to come with you, babe?” Greg asked.

  “No.” Pam turned just her head to look at me one last time. “Lee, find out who hurt Ethan. Please? He’s the one thing I got right.” She walked out of the stable slowly without saying another word.

  We all watched her go in silence.

  “I don’t think she’s got long,” Greg broke the silence with little to no emotion in his voice. “So,” he turned to face us again, “what do you want to know about Kayla?”

  “Did she ever mention to you if anything was bothering her?” Jack asked.

  “No, but we weren’t that close. She was actually closer to Pam. And Ethan, of course.”

  “Okay, I guess we’re done. We’re just trying to get a clearer picture of who Kayla was.”

  That was it? Had Jack lost his mind? He must have glanced at Greg’s knee. He must have seen the scar. And he was just going to walk away? Stunned, I followed silently behind Jack and Greg as we slowly walked back through the length of the stable. I tried to think of a question, any question, that I could ask Greg to keep the conversation going. But the only thing I wanted to do was accuse him of sexually abusing a child, even if Kayla had been legally old enough to consent to sex.

  And Jack wasn’t asking anything important. He was continuing to blather on about Allamanda Cay.

  It wasn’t until after we’d just walked out of the stable that Greg said anything of importance. He looked over his shoulder before speaking and at first I thought he was looking to see if I was in hearing distance, but he looked past me. He wanted to make sure that Pam wouldn’t hear whatever he was about to say. “Look, Jack, I couldn’t say this around Pam. She thought the sun rose out of Ethan’s and Kayla’s asses. She and Erica started planning their wedding when the kids were still in diapers, but Kayla wasn’t the innocent girl that they thought she was. The way I hear it, she was pretty loose with her favours, if you get my drift.”

  “Really?” Jack feigned shock and turned to face Greg. “Thanks, Greg. Every little bit of information helps.” He shifted his crutches as if to take another step, then stopped moving again. “I do have one more question, though.”

  He was leaning on one crutch at a weird angle and the other crutch wasn’t touching the ground. I thought he was going to fall and was ready to lunge over to grab him if he did, but he was the one who did the lunging.

  He slammed his left crutch across Greg’s body and used his knee to hold it there, pinning Greg against the outside wall of the stable. His left hand moved so quickly that I only saw a blur. Before I knew it his hand was around Greg’s throat.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? She was just a kid!”

  Greg’s little hands flew up to his neck and he tried to pry loose Jack’s tight grip. “I didn’t...,”

  “Don’t!” Jack literally spit out. “Don’t even try to deny it. We’ve seen the video, we know exactly what you did to her! Is that why you pushed her out of the tower? Because you didn’t want to get caught messing around again? It wouldn’t be the first time, but Pam wouldn’t be able to forgive you for messing with Erica’s daughter, would she.”

  Jack was scaring me. He’d let his other crutch drop and was gripping Greg’s neck with both hands. Greg was having difficulty breathing. “Jack.” He didn’t hear me.

  “You like them young, do you? Do they make a little pip-squeak like you feel like a big strong man?”

  “Jack!”

  “What?” He turned his head to look at me and I instinctively stepped back. I’d never seen his eyes so black with fury.

  “He can’t breathe.”

  “Neither can Kayla.” Jack jerked his hands off of Greg’s neck and snatched his crutch off of Greg’s body.

  Greg dropped to his knees, gasping for air. “I’ll fucking sue you...,”

  He was reaching out to grab the crutch that Jack had dropped, but I moved faster than him and picked it up off the ground.

  “You won’t sue me,” Jack said as I handed him the crutch, but he didn’t look at me. He didn’t take his eyes off of Greg. “You don’t want Pam to see that video. You won’t risk losing the payoff that you’re counting on getting when she dies. Is that why you killed Kayla? Was she going to go to Pam?”

  Greg stood up and laughed – laughed! – in Jack’s face. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  Jack tensed and I knew he was thinking of lunging at Greg again. “Don’t, Jack. He’s not worth it.”

  “No, she wasn’t worth it,” Greg corrected me. “I didn’t kill the little slut. I wasn’t even in the country when she went splat. I was in Texas at a cancer clinic with my dying wife. But, hey, if you find out who did get rid of her let me know. I’d like to thank him. I bet all of the guys she was screwing over would like to thank him.” He rubbed his neck. Jack’s hands had left bright red impressions on it. “I hope he got a freebie out of her before shoving her out the window.”

  Jack had regained his balance, but not his equilibrium. “You weren’t the only one?”

  “You really are just as dumb as you look, aren’t you rich man?” Greg took a step toward Jack. He puffed his chest out and reminded me of an Australian frill-necked lizard splaying his frill to look bigger to a threatening opponent.

  There was way too much testosterone pumping between the two men, so I stepped between them, hoping a little oestrogen would calm things down. “Kayla was blackmailing more than one man?”

  “You bet, and she even bragged about it, said she was getting an allowance from lots of daddies. And if you’re thinking that she jumped because she felt guilty, I can guarantee you that bitch never felt guilty about anything. She loved having the power, just like Erica does.�
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  “Do you know who else she...,”

  Greg started shaking his head before I could finish my sentence. “I don’t know and don’t care.”

  “How did it start?”

  “The cunt set me up!”

  That word made me cringe and I wished he’d stopped himself from using it the way Jeff had. Was Greg trying to paint himself as a victim?

  “She flirted like you wouldn’t believe. Did it for months. Accidentally bumping into me, brushing her tits against my arm when I helped her up on Elmo, wearing skin tight pants, giving me the look. She seduced me!”

  I bumped into people and inanimate objects all the time, sometimes I wore tight clothes, and I always looked right at the people I was talking to. But it didn’t mean I was seducing anyone! Greg was the kind of man who would claim that a rape victim wanted it if she was wearing less than a Burqa. “And? What did you do about it? What happened?” I fought to control my own anger.

  “Her car had broken down and she asked me to drive her back to the school after one of her lessons. She said she wanted to stop by their cottage on the way. She invited me in for a drink and she had a couple, too. We had the place to ourselves, except for one of Erica’s maids. I heard her walking around when we were upstairs. Kayla started acting like she was tipsy. She said she had to get something from her room but she was stumbling on the stairs, so I helped her get up to the second floor. And she pushed right up against me, you can bet! Then she whispered in my ear, in that sexy breathy way you bitches do, Do it to me on my mother’s bed.”

  I felt ill.

  Greg opened his eyes wide and looked around me to Jack. “You saw her! She had an ass...,”

  “You disgust me,” Jack growled.

  I shifted to block Jack’s view of Greg, just in case his revulsion turned physical again. “You had sex with Kayla in Erica’s bedroom?”