When we got to Sophie’s, Fred tucked the Cokes under his arm, took out a key and opened the front door.
“Did Sophie give you a key?” I asked.
“Yes. Where else would I have got one?”
I shrugged. “I figured you had some special master key that unlocked all our doors.” I moved inside the showplace house.
He laid a hand on my shoulder, and I turned back to face him. “Call me if anything unexpected happens.”
Good grief. I couldn’t believe he and Trent both thought I was so helpless. “Whatever,” I said, using Rickie’s favorite word.
He left, and I closed and locked the door behind him.
I put the Cokes and cake in the refrigerator, took a firm grip on the iron skillet then made a tour of the house. I needed to know the layout in case a crazed killer chased me around the place.
Sophie’s bedroom was amazing. The ceiling went all the way up to the peak of the roof, and a fan hung down, its blades swirling lazily. The king-sized bed was draped with a down-filled white comforter accented by several brightly colored pillows of various shapes tossed about in a seemingly casual pattern. Her dresser and armoire were antiques, not matching but both made of cherry wood. Her nightstands were round, skirted tables holding lamps with crystal bases which again complemented each other but weren’t exact replicas. Everything in the room was elegant and casual at the same time. Inviting and intimidating. Her interior design business was likely going to be a huge success.
I opened the second dresser drawer and found several silky white night gowns. I chose one at random, slipped out of my shorts and shirt and pulled it over my head. Not a bad fit. A little roomy up top, but that was better than being too tight. I was a couple of inches taller than Sophie, so at least I wouldn’t trip on it as I ran across the street to Fred’s house in our reenactment scene. It actually felt quite nice against my skin. Maybe I would buy a silk T-shirt to sleep in.
I took my cell phone from my purse, flopped backward onto the bed and hit Trent’s speed dial.
“Hi, baby,” he said.
“I’m lying here all alone in a sumptuous king sized bed, wearing nothing but a silk nightgown. Give you any ideas, sexy guy?”
“Hang on just a minute. Let me take you off speaker phone.”
My face got hot. I was pretty sure it had turned the rich shade of a Coke can.
“So you’re all settled in?” he asked.
“Yes. You can put me back on speaker phone, then we can both set down our phones and do something else as we wait until midnight when I turn into a sleepwalker.”
I turned down the covers and lay back on the bed. It was like lying on a cloud.
A floorboard creaked, and I sat bolt upright.
Stupid. It was an old house. Old houses creaked. Mine certainly did, but I was accustomed to the creaks and groans of my house.
I took my cell phone in one hand and the skillet in the other then tiptoed downstairs and checked all the rooms.
Nobody was there. The doors were locked. I was being silly. However, my motto was, better silly than dead.
I went back to bed, took out my e-reader and read for a while. Finally put my book aside and turned off the light.
“Good night,” I said, speaking in the general direction of my cell phone.
“Good night, baby.”
I smiled into the darkness. Nice to hear his voice. Nice to know he was there.
I dozed a little. I was tired. But I just couldn’t fall sound asleep. The gown was comfortable enough even though it kept wrapping around my legs every time I turned over, but that wig was driving me crazy. Every time I moved, I had to adjust it. If Dr. Dan should arrive unexpectedly, I didn’t want to look like Ronald McDonald in the middle of a costume change.
And I admit, I was a little nervous. Not scared, just a little nervous at being in a strange house.
I tried to ignore the noises of that house, assured myself nobody could get into the house without Fred or Trent seeing him.
Finally about eleven I gave up, got up and went downstairs. Might as well have some chocolate.
The entire first floor glowed faintly with some sort of ambient lighting Sophie had included in her decorating scheme. I like bright light, so I turned on a regular lamp, then immediately turned it off when I realized I was putting myself in the spotlight. No need to make it easy for Dr. Dan, the killing man.
I went into the kitchen and took the mousse cake out of the refrigerator. Sophie had a beautiful set of knives in a wooden block. I chose the largest chef’s knife, cut myself a generous piece, put it on a dessert plate and took it to the living room.
I took a bite. It was delicious. Went a long way toward soothing my nerves. I barely jumped when I heard a noise at the back door. Probably a raccoon or a possum.
About the third bite, my phone began playing Out of a Blue Clear Sky. The fact Trent was calling meant we’d lost our connection somewhere in the course of the last couple of hours. Blasted cell phone service. Good thing I hadn’t needed him.
I hit the icon to accept the call. “What’s up?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The whole thing’s off.”
“What? No!”
“Sorry I had to hang up on you, but I got a call from the station. Jamison’s in the hospital. Took an overdose. Tried to commit suicide.”
“Well, I guess Fred succeeded in scaring him. I don’t suppose he left a note confessing to everything.”
“No such luck. He went upstairs after dinner and locked himself in his office. He does that a lot, and his wife only became concerned when she got a call from his brother saying Daniel wasn’t answering his cell phone. She found him slumped over his desk and called 911.”
“Is he going to live?” If he died by his own hand without ever confessing to the evil he’d done, at least he’d no longer be a threat to Sophie. But it would be less satisfying than seeing him go to trial and be punished for what he’d done.
“They got to him in time. Son of a bitch will live. I’ll question him as soon as he’s conscious, but I doubt he’ll admit to anything.”
My heart plummeted. All our hard work had blown up in our faces. “Damn! And now he’ll know we were lying about Sophie making an identification or Fred having blood for DNA comparison. Damn, damn, damn!”
“We’ll figure out something else. Come on home. I already told Fred. I’ll let you wake Sophie when you get here so the two of you can exchange houses.”
“Will you stay the night?” Again I hated to sound needy, but I was feeling kind of needy.
“Yes, I’ll stay the night. I’ll leave before Rickie gets up in the morning.”
“I’ll clean up my mess, change clothes and be right there.”
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
I disconnected the call and sank back against the sofa cushions, suddenly exhausted. I’d been running on adrenalin, excited about taking down a murderer, avenging the death of a little girl, keeping Sophie safe. Now I was just tired.
I heard a noise at the back door again, but I didn’t even flinch. The bad guy was in a hospital room with nurses waiting on him hand and foot, doctors exerting every effort to keep a worthless piece of scum alive. I was not concerned with the creatures of the night or the creaks and groans of an old house.
I leaned forward, retrieved my plate and took another bite. When life throws a curve ball, eat chocolate.
I heard a faint scratching at the front door. I didn’t have enough energy to get concerned. It could be anything, maybe even Henry. If Trent or Sophie had let him out of the house, he’d likely come to find me.
The front door whispered open.
That did get my attention. Henry, possums and raccoons didn’t open doors.
I stood, still clutching my plate of chocolate mousse, and looked in the direction of the door. “Trent?” I asked hopefully.
The tall man dressed in black and wearing a ski mask was definitely not Trent. Dr. Dan must have been released from the hospital
already.
“You!” we both exclaimed at the same time.
We were both wrong.
Chapter Twenty
He dropped the can of gasoline he was carrying and charged across the room toward me. For an instant I was paralyzed with horror. But only for an instant. Still clutching my plate of mousse, I ran away from him as fast as I could, though the length of my strides was hampered by the width of that beautiful but impractical gown.
I made it to the kitchen doorway when a hand grabbed my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks.
I admit it. I was scared. This was not part of the plan. I’d left my iron skillet upstairs. All I had was a piece of half-eaten chocolate mousse cake. Putting my life in the hands of my chocolate, I whirled around, yanked off his ski mask with one hand and smashed the remnants of my mousse into his face with the other. A part of my brain registered that he looked different, but I didn’t have time to think about it.
He let go of my shoulder, and I made a mad dash for the front door.
He bellowed a few curse words and started after me. I’d have made it, but that damn gown got in the way. I stumbled as I rounded the coffee table, and he tackled me from behind. I went down hard, my face smashing against the beautiful hardwood floor. I was pretty sure my nose was broken. It hurt.
His weight settled onto my back and he grabbed one of my arms, pinning it behind me. I returned a few of his curse words. I wasn’t ready to die. What would Henry do without me? Who’d make chocolate to help all those people get through their day? And then there was Trent. I hadn’t had a chance to tell Trent him how I felt about him.
Begging for my life probably wasn’t going to work. It never did in the movies. I was in no position to threaten. Logic was all that was left. “Killing me won’t help you now, Daniel Jamison,” I shouted. “We know who you are and what you’ve done!”
The man was still for a moment, then he laughed. “You think I’m Daniel? Interesting. You were young when you saw me. I guess to a kid we looked alike. This is all his fault, but I’m not him. He’s in the hospital. Tried to kill himself. If you know so much, I’m surprised you don’t know that.”
I realized then that the voice was different. Similar but different. I tried to twist around to get a better look at him. The blasted wig caught as I turned and I could feel it sliding off.
“What the devil?” He grabbed the wig and yanked it off.
“I was having a bad hair day.” I could see enough to verify that he wasn’t Dr. Dan. He looked a lot like him but his face was thinner, harder. And dotted with chocolate mousse.
But what really got my attention was the hypodermic needle in the hand that held my wig. I wasn’t sure what was in that hypodermic, but I’d be willing to bet he wasn’t planning to give himself an insulin injection.
“You have red hair?” He looked at the wig then at me. “I don’t remember red hair.”
I could have told him I wasn’t Sophie, but at that point I didn’t think it would make any real difference. “It was an accident. I was trying to add highlights.”
He bit his lip and cursed. “You were supposed to be asleep. This would have been so easy if you’d been upstairs asleep. I’m not a murderer! I don’t like being forced to do this.”
“Jay?” I guessed. “Dr. Dan’s brother?”
He gave a short, ugly bark, something between a laugh and a snort. It was not a pleasant or reassuring sound. “Yeah, the doctor’s brother. I thought this was over, all behind me. Why couldn’t you just stay gone? Daniel paid your family to stay gone.”
“He paid them but then he killed them. They—we moved to Nebraska, but your brother killed my parents.”
“Not him. Never my perfect, upright, uptight brother. They died because your father was as much a prig as my brother. Your father couldn’t live with the guilt. He was going to give back the money and tell the police what I’d done. I had to get rid of them. I had no choice.”
For a moment I actually felt elation. I did it! I got his confession, though there was nobody around to hear it except me and I might not live to tell anybody. That thought pretty much dampened my elation. “Why did you kill Carolyn? She was just a little girl. She was my friend.”
“I had no choice,” he said again. “My idiot brother was going to leave Natalie and marry Sarah.”
“He loved her and Carolyn. He wanted to do the right thing.”
Jay snorted. “The right thing for who? Who’d have benefited from that? Nobody. He was going to give up everything…the big house, nice car, plenty of money. Drop out of school to take care of his family.” He made family sound like a curse word. “He might as well have stayed at home in the first place.”
Maybe if I could focus his anger on that family instead of me, I could talk him out of killing me. “I understand. You escaped from that awful place. He was helping you get through school so you could both have a better life. And she was going to ruin it.”
“Daniel went out of his way to take care of her and provide a home for her when she showed up with that kid she said was his. But when she told him she was pregnant again, he was going to throw away everything and marry her. I liked living in a nice house and driving a new car and eating steaks. I liked the opportunity to have a better life. I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“The only logical thing you could have done was kill Sarah and Carolyn and buy my parents’ silence.”
He heaved a long sigh. “Your parents were a problem. They were going to the cops no matter how much money my brother offered them. But when I threatened to kill you, that did it. I guess since they only had one kid, they worried about that kid. Not so much when you have plenty of spares like my parents.” He laughed at his own sick joke.
“What did you do with Sarah and Carolyn after you killed them?”
“The Missouri river was flooded. We cut them up and dumped them.”
I shuddered at the casual way he sounded as he described the macabre deed. He had no soul. With a sinking feeling I realized he was not going to let me live no matter what I said or did. He was going to inject me and watch me die without a second of remorse.
My only chance was to keep him talking. If I could delay long enough, maybe Trent would realize I was taking too long and would come after me. Maybe Jay would have a heart attack and die. Maybe the New Madrid fault would finally give and we’d have an earthquake and the ceiling would fall on Jay. “Dr. Dan butchered his own daughter and pregnant girlfriend?”
“He did it to help me. I’m his brother. She was just the slut who was going to ruin his life.”
Dr. Dan wasn’t a psychotic killer. He was a weak man who wanted to help everybody…Sarah, Natalie, his brother…Sophie? “He tried to warn her—me, didn’t he? He’s the one who called and told me to leave town.”
Jay snorted again. “Yeah, he thought that stupid phone call and that doll of Carolyn’s would scare you away. I knew better. When I found out the man who lives in Sarah’s old house went out to talk to my parents, I knew I had to stop things before it was too late, before you remembered.” He tossed the wig aside and took a firmer grip on the hypodermic. “The gas leak would have been a painless death. If you’d been asleep tonight, I’d have given you this shot and you’d have died peacefully. I did my best to make this easy on you, but you’ve left me no choice.”
I thought I heard a sound from the vicinity of the kitchen door. Jay didn’t seem to notice, so maybe I was hearing what I wanted to hear.
Or maybe Fred with his x-ray vision and psychic abilities had come to rescue me. Or Trent with his cop skills. Or, better yet, both of them.
I focused on keeping Jay talking and myself drug-free.
“Actually, you do have a choice. Let’s sit down and talk about this. We can have a Coke and some more of that chocolate mousse and I’m sure we can figure out something.” Something that didn’t involve my death.
He laughed. “I’m a lawyer. I know what would happen if I let you live. Th
e whole story would come out. I killed twenty years ago so I wouldn’t have to give up the good life, so I wouldn’t have to go home. Going to prison would be like going back to that God-awful place where I grew up. I won’t do it.”
He pressed the needle against my thigh. I gulped and took in a deep breath, maybe my last.
The needle burst through the silk and pricked my skin. I hate shots. I gave as big a lurch as I could under the circumstances. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to unsettle him briefly and dislodge the needle from my body.
He cursed again and tightened his hold on my arm, pulling it back painfully and twisting me so my nose hit the floor again.
“Son of a bitch, you broke my arm!”
“Stop being a baby. Your arm’s not broken. That would look suspicious. I need you to be intact and breathing when the house burns so you’ll inhale smoke and it will look like a natural death.”
“How am I going to breathe in smoke when my nose is broken and you’re going to shoot me up with poison?”
“This isn’t poison. It’s a heavy duty sedative that will put you to sleep.”
“I don’t want to go to sleep. Tell you what, how about you let me go and I promise I’ll never say a word to anybody about all this.”
He laughed. For an instant I thought my reputation for telling everything I knew had reached even him, but then I remembered that he thought I was Sophie. He was just being generically disbelieving.
Again I felt the needle pressing against my thigh. I tried to move, to dislodge him again, but he held my arm so tightly, pressed me so firmly against the floor, I was doing good to breathe. I braced myself. At least he’d promised I’d die peacefully.
“Let her go!”
Jay’s hold on my arm eased. I turned my head and saw Rickie standing over us, wielding the knife I’d used to slice the mousse. It still had remnants of chocolate on it. I wanted to laugh and cry.
The kid threw himself on Jay, and Jay fell on top of me, again smashing my nose to the floor.
A large knife, chocolate mousse, a crazy kid and a hypodermic needle full of a heavy duty sedative…we were all going to die.
Sally Berneathy - Death by Chocolate 04 - Chocolate Mousse Attack Page 17
