by D. L. EVANS
“OK, Adam. It’s your call. God knows we don’t want her mad at us... do we? Now, as for reality, I’ve got to let Reese know his fraud case is over since his suspects are dead, and arrange to collect the bodies. If Gabriel killed them like he did Hennessy... Mother of God, if she saw and felt that, it’s a wonder she... well, you know. Out of the frying pan, and into the abyss.”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
ADAM STONE:
I slept like the dead until oh, at least half past six when the ‘phone rang. It could only be Mack. He rudely interrupted my morning with the news that Detective Reese had assured him that Harmon, Smythe, Chernak and Meyers were still very much alive and still under his team’s surveillance. What was going on? Was the unholy assassin Gabriel bragging to Annie before the fact? Mack warned Reese about the threat from Gabe Smith and assigned extra men to watch the four in case Gabriel tried to make good his prediction. Like that would help! He then sent a car to the foundry to check for remains in the furnace but they hadn’t reported in yet. I asked if he had checked in with Annie but he said that he would wait until our meeting that night to find out why she said that the four men were already deceased. It was just after sunrise and too late to get back to sleep so I worked out with the weights to build up a sweat. After a shower I made a huge fried breakfast, eggs bacon and fried tomatoes and toast, but kept thinking about Annie and Gabe. If he lied to her, what else could he be wrong about?”
I sat at my computer and deleted any mention of Annie. Then, I opened the file on Vladimir Roman and entered the information Annie told us about his death, just to close off the facts, then added a few more thoughts that I might use for his character. I saved it and then took out the disc from the drawer to add the info’ to the backup. That was the plan. What appeared on my screen shocked the hell out of me. The file started as usual with the facts that I had transferred from Mack’s notes and continued on with my fantasy character for the book. After those entries, the words were not mine.
Vladimir Roman has been murdering young women for thirteen years. You actually came close to the reason when you wrote that in your fictional version of him, he took death masks from beautiful faces to elevate his work. The fact is Mr. Roman ordered the deaths of random females, choosing ones that resembled the work in progress, to be physically inserted into the piece, to give it a soul. He was feeling his age. He rationalised that he already given too much of his own soul to his work over the years and would no longer be creative unless he gave his work another true soul to encase. So it is with an unbalanced mind. The artist student Morgan condemned herself when she told Roman of Annie Stanford’s extraordinary ability to understand how Morgan herself used her emotions in her work to express herself. Unfortunately, Morgan saw how that information affected him. He was afraid. That led the stupid woman to examine Roman’s work more closely. She saw the similarities between the missing women and his bronzes. One small piece only required a head. Morgan was the only woman that Roman actually killed himself. His evil servants executed the rest without remorse. In his twisted mind I saw at least fourteen bodies being placed inside his bronzes. There may be more. In his arrogant, evil mind Roman thought they would be honoured and eternally admired. Check the other cities where he used local foundries. I am doing God’s work.
I couldn’t believe it! Gabriel Smith got into my building, into my apartment and into my computer. It must have happened yesterday, I was working on my notes until then. Damn. The guy is a god-damned, fucking ghost. I must have been staring at the incredible words for heaven knows how long, when the buzzer signalled that someone was in the foyer. It was Mack and I released the door lock. Just the man I wanted to see. He wasn’t going to believe this.
When Mack walked in on his toes I knew this wasn’t a social visit. What was he doing here so early anyway? Before I could say anything, he practically threw a file on the computer table in front of me and said, “Read this!”
I opened the folder, turned the hand written notes over, one by one. They were in Mack’s own writing and were about the results of the reports from the Summerhill Glen investigation. Nothing he hadn’t already told me. I looked up at him confused.
“The last two pages,” he said.
The last two pages were computer printouts. At a glance they looked like rather complicated bank statements and transfer information. Then I noticed the familiar names of the companies listed before the amounts.
“It’s just what it looks like,” Mack said firmly. “Reese is checking this out. He lit up like a bloody Christmas tree when I slapped them down in front of him this morning. It was a Kodak moment, Adam, I tell ya. After looking at them for a few minutes he practically choked trying to ask me a dozen questions at once. He’s been working on this case for two bloody years and couldn’t get near anything like this. The closest he got to thanking me was to say that the bastards will be tied up with bells on for the next hundred years. It ties all of them, Smythe, Harmon, Chernak and Myers to stock manipulation, income tax evasion, extortion and God knows what else. They’re finished! Before you even ask, let me tell you the weird part, I found the pages right where you see them, in the notes I’ve been keeping for you. Since passing you the information is somewhat illegal, I keep that file locked in the bottom drawer of my desk. I didn’t think anyone even knew about it. The drawer was still locked when I went for the file after I spoke with you this morning... Look I can see that yer speechless but I’ve got to get back. I said I just popped out for a minute but I know the shit is hitting the fan. I just needed to get my head around this for a minute so I headed over here. I just told Reese that I found the printout in my locked drawer, nothing else about the file.
As he headed back to the door, I finally found my voice. “He was here too,” I managed to blurt out. Mack stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.
“What?”
“Gabriel Smith. The ghost. He got into my computer and wrote a few paragraphs about killing Vlad Roman and his two men. Here.” I passed him a printout of the page where I had Gabe’s words in italics.
“Holy shit! So Roman did whack those women, and more besides. The fucking monster! My guys found a lot of ash in the foundry smelter thing - they’re being analysed at forensics now. But we both know that it’ll be human remains - now we know why.” He stopped for a moment, lost in thought. “Poor Annie, having to know all this shit. I knew he was nuts when I saw him on TV. This changes everything, Adam. I’m going to have my team meet us at the Bank Plaza and open that fountain. You in?”
“Bet yer ass. Wouldn’t miss it.” Mack used the ‘phone and made arrangements to have the Plaza cleared and a large canvass barricade to be placed around the huge bronze fountain as soon as possible. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the newly famous plaza with crowd control already in progress. The visual block was up about halfway around the huge piece. The tourists were getting nosey and I knew the press would be arriving any minute. The wind was up. Questions were on everyone’s lips. Mack seemed completely calm. We both stared at the exquisite mermaid. There seemed to be no question in his mind. Yellow police tape was strung along the blockade and the crowd was getting bigger. There must have been several hundred people now wondering why our famous fountain was no longer in view. The water was turned off. Behind the temporary wall, I watched two policemen wade into the still water, up to their knees until they reached the mermaid. A drill was raised and placed on the flowing dark gold hair, about the middle of her back. The drill turned and quickly pierced the shell. A few seconds later, it was withdrawn, pulling out several strands of long blond hair. No one moved for several seconds. The two cops who were visibly shaken, looked to Mack for the signal to continue. He told them to go ahead and open her up. Two other men joined them with welding torches and began working along an invisible seam. Some time later, they opened the two halves and a naked, female body slid into the water. No decomposition was visible but there was no substance to the shape. It... she, looked like a partially d
eflated doll with shiny hair covering her face. Several other men stepped in with a gurney and put the rag-doll like body in a bag and took it away. The non-existent birds kept on singing their lovely song from speakers, high in the trees.
Mack crossed himself. “Poor lass. It had to be true, didn’t it? To think that our Lauren was that close to him.” He looked at me beyond expression. “Wait ‘till she hears what he was... Remember she said that Roman said something strange in the interview?” I nodded. “Well, we watched it together and he talked about how the human soul lives in the brain, not the heart and the eyes could see into it. He gave all his work soul.... Said that right to the camera. Fucking demon. He didn’t have a soul but he must have known that. Since he didn’t have any to give, he took from these poor women. I’m glad we don’t have to face a trial. He’d get off with insanity.”
Mack ordered the bronze mermaid to be cut out of the fountain and taken as evidence. “Oh, Lauren told me to tell you that she’s at old man Stanford’s funeral but I’ve asked her to join us at your place tonight... Didn’t think you’d mind. “By the way, how d’ya know Gabriel Smith was in your study in the flesh? Couldn’t he just have hacked into your computer?”
It was strange to hear of my sister’s whereabouts from Mack... something that I was going to have to get used to, I guess. “No, I’m not hooked up to the modem.” I answered. “It was actually on the backup disc, not in the hard drive. He’s a genius, not to mention invisible. And I remembered that Annie said that Gabriel told her the four men were destroyed. All of us assumed that Gabriel meant that he’d already killed them. Annie hadn’t made a mistake, we’d just jumped to the wrong conclusions. They were ‘destroyed’ because he had already put the information that would finish them, in your desk.”
“Of course, that’s right.” Mack agreed. “Look, I have to get back. There’ll be a mountain of paperwork on these deaths and fourteen years to backtrack. Christ, some rich bastards are going to piss themselves when they see what’s been sealed inside their private collections. Reese is probably dancing a jig now that he’s got Smythe and his gang by the short and curlies and I’m going to have to explain or at least think of a reason why the genius Gabriel Smith, if that’s his real name, disappeared from Harmon Labs and got that incredible shit pile of incriminating evidence to me personally. I’ll bet there’s nothing this guy can’t get to. How do you think the psychic-psycho will read with Chief Lewis?”
“Or the press. You better talk it over with Reese. He’ll be in your corner now,” I said.
Mack walked away but no longer up on his toes.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
ANNIE STANFORD:
The funeral was over, the relatives had said their piece and gone home. Annie felt as if she had played the lead part in a stage play and the audience had finally applauded and left. Alison was relieved but hadn’t said a word to her sister since the eulogy. Annie watched Alison go through the motions, wishing she could think of the right words to say. But there were no right words. What she had always felt for her sister was gone. The family was gone. The future? It was not shimmering in front of her any more. Something more had died and Annie felt anguish. Without a word, she changed from her black dress into jeans and a sweater. She left the house quietly, and drove to her studio at the warehouse. From the second story window Alison watched her sister pull away. Without any emotion she went to her desk in the study and gathered all the papers and boxes that she had collected over the years and placed them in the fireplace and lit a match. They took over an hour to burn. It was time.
Alison drove to the warehouse in her BMW, adjusted her immaculate suit and walked to the front door. The neighbourhood disgusted her. She pressed the doorbell, scanning the street for drunks. ‘How could Annie live in this dump?’ she wondered. She looked up at the video camera over the front door knowing Annie would be watching. Alison never felt more alive. It was as if all the years, days and minutes had been narrowing down to this one conversation, the final meeting with Annie.
Alison’s image appeared on the monitor. Annie pressed the button that opened the door and her sister entered. She pressed the second one that released the elevator and listened as it made its hushed way down and up the shaft. A few seconds later Alison walked into the room smiling like she hadn’t a care in the world, slipped out of her jacket and draped it casually over a chair. Annie sat on the leather couch, feet tucked under her, forcing her breath slowly in and out in practised control. She watched her sister’s movements, feeling strangely detached from the reality of her presence. Alison had never looked so beautiful. Her eyes sparked green light and her skin glowed. Alison, her sister. Alison, the one that she could always count on. A debilitating wave of tenderness came over her as she saw her twelve-year-old sister, a luminous memory in the lovely face. As hard as she tried, she could not sense her sister’s mind. Nothing registered behind the layers of refinement, carefully groomed and controlled. Annie had no defences against her. Alison, as usual, was in charge. Annie felt as though they were following a script but Annie had forgotten the lines. What was she going to say? Questions hovered in her throat but remained unasked. She realized for the first time that she had no idea who her sister was. Alison was a total stranger.
She would start with some kind of light remark. Alison reached into her purse, made a performance out of lighting her cigarette and blew a plume of smoke into the air between them. She stared at her sister with a tight penetrating smile. “Life is full of surprises, isn’t it?” Annie didn’t comment. “Well, I didn’t really expect dear Uncle Rick to leave me much in his will but to leave me out entirely was a little nasty, don’t you agree….? Not that I’d want any of the paintings and furniture, but a gesture would have been nice. Too bad. Just ‘cause I looked so much like Mummy.” She inhaled deeply. “He hated Mummy, although he denied it, and wasn’t too fond of Grandma either. What a family. Everyone with standards a little too high, everyone ready to pass judgement on everybody else,” she laughed. “I wasn’t sure you’d see me.” She flicked the cigarette into a brass incense burner on the coffee table between them. “Well, you’ve had some time to think things over, do you forgive me?”
Annie swallowed, unsure of the question. “For what, exactly.”
“For stopping you from making stupid mistakes. For putting you first and praying that you would come around and do the right thing. We’re a team, you and me. That’s all I ever wanted. I took care of you, in my own way, like I promised.”
“Praying? What do you know about praying? You killed three men... “Annie said with her eyes closed willing the tears to stop.
Alison glared at her, waiting for her to continue.
Annie fought for control. “I thought the watcher,” she started, “he has a name now, Gabriel Smith, had killed them but he was protecting me from you. He tried to tell me in the end, but I wasn’t listening. Then... I saw... everything. I finally saw you, the real you, through his powerful mind,” Annie said.
Alison remained calm but her eyes blazed with her self-righteous conviction. Annie finally sensed the rage that Alison suppressed as it coldly flowed around her. She had an overwhelming need to break through her sister’s icy composure. “Three wonderful men, human beings that I cared about...” Her inner fortifications were giving way. “How could you cold-bloodedly plan to ... How could you.... God, I can’t even say it. He took pictures of you. He took awful pictures of everything to freeze the moments to relive later. I would never have believed that you were even capable of harming another creature, let alone plan three deaths. And why? Why did they need to die?” A sob rose from her throat and tears spilled down her face.
Alison sighed, walked to the kitchen counter behind Annie and pulled out a bottle of wine from the rack. Alison had known since they’d faced each other at breakfast that Annie had somehow broken through her wall of privacy and KNEW. So that’s how she found out, she thought. There really was someone keeping tabs on her and that person had kno
wn about her agenda. That was interesting, but what did it matter now? Annie would never understand the potential threat that her lovers were to the big plan. They had to be bought off and then eliminated after the fact, in case they ever changed their minds. No man could ever have the power to ruin the future and she had to have Annie’s undivided attention. “Let’s have a glass of the grape together, like the old days... OK?” She fussed around in a drawer and feigned looking for the corkscrew to give Annie a few minutes to regain control. She hoped things wouldn’t have to get too messy. It was time for a diversion. ”I think I should let you in on the big picture... or, shall I say, what was the big picture.” Alison said and came back to the couch with the opened wine. “Adam’s still alive and kicking,” she said suppressing a giggle, “Although I had his beloved car squished. Oh you didn’t know that? Did he back off? She waited, savouring Annie’s shocked expression. “No, he probably didn’t even see it as a warning. Should have waited ‘till he was in it. Pays to have friends in low places, sister dear. But I would have liked to have been there when he saw it under the concrete bin.” She laughed.
Annie shook her head wiping the tears away, fighting another emotional outburst. The last thing she wanted was to share wine with her sister. Alison poured two glasses. “Come on Annie. I’ll explain everything. We only have a few minutes... I’ve called the police and that know-it-all detective Mackenzie, no doubt with your Adam at his side, will be here soon. I’ve confessed! I did, really. Times, dates, everything. Can’t you see that I’m telling the truth? I also said I would offer no resistance. That only gives us a few minutes together for one last glass. I don’t imagine they’ll have any of these expensive vintages where I’ll be going. Please Annie... One last drink with your big sister who tried her best to take care of you.” She handed Annie the glass and returned to her seat.