And Then They Were Doomed

by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli

  Gewel seemed confused. “I have no idea.”

  Aaron Kennedy threw his head back and laughed. “No matter. I’d like to suggest, for everyone’s consideration:

  Lizzie Borden took an axe

  And gave her mother forty whacks.

  When she saw what she had done,

  She gave her father forty-one.

  There was laughter.

  Aaron Kennedy stood, bowing in all directions.

  Anna booed down into her collar.

  “Therefore the case is the murder of Mr. Borden by his daughter Lizzie, and though she was acquitted, the evidence of the dress she burned afterward; the fact that no door was open to an intruder; that dear Lizzie bought a hatchet the day before the murder; and then, of course, Lizzie’s hatred for her stepmother—I think this case has long been solved and the right person charged.” He sat back, pleased with himself.

  “And the real killer let off by an all-male jury,” Aaron added.

  “That’s a pile of … bunk.” Zoe spoke up. “Today the charge would be temporary insanity due to the extreme stress of childhood incest. I think incest was long ago suspected in this case. Therefore—solved. Yet again. Real crime.”

  “I guessed that one!” an indignant Aaron barked out.

  “Now,” Gewel said, raising her hand and ignoring him, “we have one more.”

  Aaron groused, “Why bother? We’re all much too smart for your silly games.”

  Gewel ignored him and went through the papers in her lap.

  “Now.” She looked over at Bella. “It seems to be the murder of a young girl.”

  Zoe sat up. “How was she murdered? What time of year? Where was her body found? What about her friends? Did she have a boyfriend? Did she ever say she was afraid of anybody? Anybody seen with her that she shouldn’t have been with? How about DNA?”

  Anthony answered the questions one by one. “Throat cut. Early spring. Body not found for three years, and then found in the woods, miles away. Friends were the ones who reported her missing. The police called her parents, who were already worrying about her. Hmm. No indication she was in fear of anything or anybody. Too late to get DNA or hairs or anything from her body when they found her.”

  Nigel asked, “What year was she killed then? I think I remember hearing about a case like this. Right here in Michigan, was it? In all the newspapers for a while. I didn’t know she’d been found.”

  “2015.”

  Gewel spoke up. “She was popular with her professors and other students alike. There was no reason to be gone, but she was.”

  She went on without stopping. “A friend was under suspicion until he was cleared. not even in town the day she came up missing.”

  Everyone turned to Gewel, watching as facts about the murder rolled out of her.

  When she stopped for breath, Zoe asked. “What college was it?

  Gewel looked at the sheet of paper in her hand. “University of Michigan.”

  Zoe went on, “Any trouble with anyone? Was anyone known to be hanging around her? Did she report anyone to the police?”

  “First question is no. Second is no. Third is no.” Gewel answered. “A friend told the police Angela had been upset lately, but that didn’t go anywhere because Angela didn’t tell her friend anything else. The police stayed in close touch with her parents, but nothing turned up. Nothing for the next three years. Until they found her.”

  Zoë asked Gewel. “This girl—did you know her?”

  She nodded.

  “And that lead they had, what was it?”

  Anthony leaned forward and handed another paper to Gewel, who read it aloud. “She told a friend just before she disappeared that she was pregnant. Very upset. She was going to see the department chair. There was someone she wanted to file a complaint against. Rape. But didn’t want to destroy her reputation.”

  “Department chair!” Zoe couldn’t help herself. “Why not the police? What do you complain to a department chair about?”

  She turned to Gewel and then to Betty.

  “I’d never take any complaint to the department chair. I’d take it to the dean.” Gewel shook her head. “Let me see. Maybe to the Associated Students Organization office. I’d talk to a counselor. If I had trouble with a professor, or with another student—maybe the counselor first. Then I’d go to the dean of the department. But no, since it was rape, I’d go right to the police.”

  “I’d like to say a couple of things …” Zoe said. “Well, you see, I would take it as a given that it had to be an on-campus murder because a campus is a small town. Many people know each other, live together, study together, eat together, yet there’s a bigger glue that holds them—the fact that they are students at an institution of higher learning. There’s a mystique about such a place that intimidates outsiders. If it had been an outsider, she would have gone to the police since it wasn’t a university matter. A threat. An assault. Stalking. And there is an air of secrecy to the way this girl handled what was going on.”

  “And, poor thing. Pregnant. A moral development. Girls tend to keep that secret as long as they can,” Nigel said.

  Zoe ignored him. “Therefore, I would tend to suspect another student or someone the girl came in contact with almost every day.”

  Anna waved her hand. “Yes, a student. Better to take it to a place where secrecy would be mandatory. That’s what I think.” She nodded hard twice. “Even one of her professors.”

  “Hmm.” Aaron Kennedy leaned back and stretched. “Personally, I’d say a loner, trolling the campus. Like that John Norman Collins, who killed girls in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor back in the sixties.”

  “That’s crazy. Whoever it was, she knew him. She didn’t run to call the police,” Anthony said, jumping in.

  Gewel said. “A professor. Don’t you agree, Aaron?”

  Betty and Anna were quiet.

  Zoe was uneasy. Something real was going on.

  Aaron spoke up, “Let’s just move on. I’m getting bored with this nonsense. We can’t stay focused on one death, you know.”

  “Murder,” Zoe corrected him.

  “Whatever.” He waved a hand. “We came here to do our talks, not solve old crimes. This is above and beyond what we were asked to do—and not paid extra for, may I remind you.”

  “Not too old a crime, professor,” Anthony said.

  “I’ve had enough of games for tonight. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I am bored out of my mind.”

  “I have to agree with Aaron.” Nigel held up one finger. “No new evidence to look at. No one to interview. Nothing of the forensics. I say we give it up.”

  “I disagree.” Anna’s voice was quiet. She stood and bowed her head.

  One by one, the others, except Zoe and Aaron Kennedy, quietly stood too. They bowed their heads.

  Aaron gave a nervous laugh and rose clumsily from his chair. “I don’t know what your game is, Gliese. But, personally, I’ve had enough of this amateur operation. I’m going upstairs to pack.”

  He moved through the chairs, between the standing people, heading for the door.

  As he reached for the handle, the door opened. Mary Reid, Leon Armstrong, and Louise Trainer stood on the other side, faces haunted. Mary and Louise came into the room and stood among the others, with their heads bowed, hands formed into prayer, Leon filled the doorway, blocking Aaron’s exit.

  No one said a word. Not a head lifted.

  Aaron pushed at Leon Armstrong’s chest.

  He didn’t move, only kept his eyes on him as he pulled Aaron back, shut the door, and stood blocking the way out.

  “What the hell is this?” Aaron demanded, turning to the backs of the others.

  “Let me out of here,” he ordered Leon, who looked over his head.

  There was a light knock at the door. Leon checked, then let Emily in. She was pulling down the folded sleeves of her shirt, looking away from Aaron’s startled face. On her head she’d clipped a black veil.

  Chapter
54

  Anthony looked down at his hands and not at anyone else. Gewel stood beside him with her eyes closed. Nigel stood where he was, never turning back to Aaron. The others were silent and motionless as Emily walked to the front, to face them.

  Aaron retreated to a corner, where he spread out his arms, his fingers splayed against the walls around him.

  “What’s this about?” he demanded, his voice high. “I’m not interested in any more of your games.”

  Zoë looked at him; there was nothing to see but an aging man, his hair thinning, his face distorted.

  “Let’s begin.” Emily said.

  To Anna she said, “You keep the tally.”

  She looked around at Gewel. “Gewel. It’s time.”

  Gewel took a deep breath before opening her eyes. She moved away from Anthony, not looking at him.

  Zoe knew why she was here. They’d said witness.

  She crossed her hands in front of her and bowed her head, like the others.

  If she’d only ignored the invitation, she’d be home with Fida, working on her new book.

  Ding-ding, ding, ding ding-ding ding.

  Hubris and hatred.

  She looked sideways toward Aaron, to the corner of the room where he cowered. The man’s face was dark. “What are we doing, if I might ask?” he called to the others. “Agatha’s laughing at us right now. You’ve gone overboard, you know.” He smiled, but it was an awful smile. “I’d like to leave.” He nodded to Emily.

  He sighed, even chuckled deep in his throat. “I imagine I’ll be forced to sue every one of you very soon.”

  He shook his head three times, and reached out to a chair, where he sat down, head in his hands.

  “Anyone else have anything to say before we begin?” It was Emily asking.

  Ding-ding, ding, ding ding-ding ding. The little rhyme skipped through Zoe’s head.

  “Then let’s begin.” Bella joined Emily. She called out to Gewel. “Gewel, dear, it’s time.”

  Gewel took a deep breath and turned to the others. She stood with her head bowed. They waited, eyes on her, until she collapsed into the chair behind her.

  “I can’t do it.” She shook her head.

  Zoe watched Aaron tighten his fists. His whole body stiffened. He searched from Leon Armstrong, standing at the door with his arms folded, to the others with their faces turned down, eyes staring at the floor.

  The silence in the room was an echo just out of hearing.

  Zoe kept her head up; eyes watching everybody.

  Aaron took a deep breath and gave an abrupt hawk of a laugh.

  “Another of your grand surprises, Emily Brent? The dead have risen, have they? Do you mind, dear lady, if I miss this part of your cheap theatrics? Another play is it? More bad drama by Agatha Christie.”

  There was something new in his eyes.

  “Anyone else have anything to say before we begin?” Bella asked.

  That silence that wasn’t silence moved in around them.

  Bella closed her eyes. Zoe could hear the woman breathing, and then heard when her breathing slowed. She was afraid she was going to hear Agatha Christie’s voice again.

  Aaron could be right: another game.

  “You may all ask one question.” Bella said in her normal voice, but devoid of her Finnish accent.

  “What are we doing? Questions about what?” Zoe called out, frustrated with all of them.

  “You mean questions about tomorrow?” Anna turned to Bella, ignoring Zoe.

  “Yes. Tomorrow.”

  After a few minutes, Emily Brent said, “Can we finish the vote first?”

  “What about the others?” Mary asked.

  “They’re on their way.”

  “Then we can begin. Gewel is a no.” Anna pulled a small notebook from her purse, wrote a name in the book, looked up and called out: “Mary? Of course you and Leon should’ve voted first.”

  Mary threw her head back, took a deep breath, and called out, “Death.”

  Leon, at the back of the room, didn’t move from the door. He lifted his voice. It no longer quavered. “Death,” he said.

  To Louise: “Death.”

  Bella: “Death.”

  Anthony voted: “Death.”

  When Anna got to Gewel again, the girl sat as she was, with her head down. She looked around at the others. “I don’t believe in killing.”

  “Will you stand with us tomorrow?” Mary asked.

  Gewel nodded. “Of course. I’ll always stand with our family.”

  There was a quiet knock at the door. Leon opened it a little, then more, and let a young woman, holding a smiling baby at her chest, into the room. Behind her was an older, squat woman with a flaming scar down one cheek.

  Anna called out: “Nigel?”

  “Death.”

  She looked over at the two newcomers.

  She called, “Marya?”

  The girl with the baby answered, “I can’t do it. I vote we take him to the police.”

  Anna made a mark in her book and passed on.

  “Inka?”

  “Death.”

  “And I vote death,” Anna said.

  “And I, too,” Bella said.

  “I say we announce the verdict.” Nigel walked over to take Aaron by the arm. “Would you stand next to me?”

  Aaron pulled away. “If this is about things that happened at my schools—I had nothing to do with a murder. Nothing to do with any of it.”

  Sweat ran down the side of Aaron’s face, giving him an almost green sheen. He gave a nervous laugh. “All I had was one innocent dalliance, maybe. That’s all. An innocent dalliance. One of those rural girls who had no real reason to be where she was” He laughed. “That one was bound to end up in some two-bit town with a dozen kids.”

  He expected laughter. He got none.

  “I heard something happened to her—that was after I was in California. Pregnant by someone, I heard, and then dead. It happens all the time in colleges across the country. There are girls, you know, who don’t deserve a college education.”

  “Angela Lamb was our daughter.” Mary Reid went to stand beside her husband, at the door.

  A collective silence.

  Betty stood, lifted her head, then pointed at Aaron. “Death,” she said.

  Aaron leaned forward. “You bastards,” he swore, then turned from face to face. “You filthy bastards.”

  Bella stood. “You left the University of Michigan. You left your wife, who swore you were a killer, then you ran from another university after a girl was murdered there. On to the University of California. You don’t have a job anymore, Aaron Kennedy. That’s gone now. Netherworld was the perfect place to hide until you had a new plan.”

  He yelled at her, “A place to hide? Five days? You must be crazy, old lady.”

  “This last girl had pictures of you, didn’t she?”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Death,” Emily said.

  Aaron threw his shoulders back, turned, and ran at Leon, striking him in the face, then pushing Mary out of his way.

  He was gone.

  No one but Zoe leaped up or made a sound.

  No one spoke. Leon stood at the back of the room, a bloody handkerchief at his chin.

  “What now?” Zoe finally asked, her voice stiff. They sat as they were, backs turned to her. “What’s going to happen next?”

  No one answered.

  “Why am I here?” Zoe whispered.

  Finally, Emily Brent said, “We told you, Zoe. Witness.”

  “To what?”

  Emily shook her head. None of the others looked at her.

  “This is your chance for redemption. Do what you have to do to protect us.”

  ‘Redeem myself?” Zoe eyes lasered on to Emily’s. “You’re not going to kill him, are you? Of course, I’ll tell. And tell. And tell.”

  Emily’s smile was faint, almost loving. “You won’t.”

  One by on
e they left the room without looking back. Only Marya and her baby stayed behind.

  “Zoe?” She came to stand nearby. “I added the black edge to your invitation. I didn’t want you to know. And I was the one who threw a rock at you your first day here, when Louise and Anna took you back to the lodge. And I was outside your window, with my husband. I’m sorry. It’s just that … nothing is fair here. I wanted you to leave.”

  Zoe couldn’t talk to her. She had no interest. There was a single strange word spinning in her head: Witness.

  Part 7

  Thursday Morning

  Chapter 55

  It was early morning and very dark except for the rosy glow of streetlights in town. The night was warm, but always with a thin rush of cold coming in the window next to Jenny. No mosquitoes. No sound from the town. A cat crossed in front of them and disappeared behind a deserted mine building.

  At least Lisa was with her—like their old days. Good to fall back into patterns of teasing and tormenting each other, if only for a few minutes at a time. Good to see how Lisa worked. Now another one of her odd stories was developing. But this time, a contract. There’d been a call from an agent. Maybe this was Lisa’s breakthrough documentary. Maybe this whole “odd” time would pay off for her.

  Jenny leaned back, stretching as far as she could extend her feet under the dash. It seemed only seconds afterward that there was a hand on her shoulder and a voice near her ear, whispering, “Jenny. We’re here.”

  Startled, Jenny sat up, ready to fight the hand on her until she saw Tony’s face in her open window. She reached up to grab his face and hold on until he took her hands in his and kissed them.

  Behind him, Dora bent forward over Tony’s shoulder. In her arms, Fida yipped and tried to get away.

  Tony opened her door for her just as Lisa woke up and jumped out to come around the other side and hug their mother.

  Everything in town was closed. There was no place to go to get caught up on what was going on.

  “They’re going to kill somebody.” Jenny could barely get the words out.

  “Kill who?”

  “I don’t know. Two women warned us. Zoe’s with them, at Netherworld. They’re stranded because of the rain. Zoe said, in the last phone call we got from her, that something’s going on there. I believe Zoe when she says a thing like that. She’s in trouble.”