Evil in All Its Disguises

by Hilary Davidson

  “That’s the biggest compliment you could pay me, Gavin.”

  “Don’t make me start in on your personality.” Gavin shrugged slightly. “I tried to get my mind around it. It would drive Martin mad to think of us together.”

  “Is your entire life about Martin?”

  “Now you sound like Skye. I admit, I am preoccupied with him. But I’ve been waiting in the wings long enough. It’s my time now. We just have to wait for Martin to get here. Ah, speaking of which…” Gavin went to the table and opened the laptop. “He should be arriving soon. Of course, he’ll have his little army with him. He’s just terrified to come to Mexico, you know. We can watch for him together.”

  Gavin turned the laptop slightly so I could see it. There was a black-and-white image of the front of the Hotel Cerón. I moved closer and saw it was a live feed.

  “I just realized, I’m being a terrible host. I’ve decided I’m not drinking any alcohol tonight, but you can have whatever you like. Champagne, perhaps? I can have the chef whip up some dinner for you, too.”

  “How thoughtful, Gavin. Is this so you can poison me again?”

  Gavin turned and stared at me. The smile that crept over his face was the first big, genuine expression I’d ever seen there, and it frightened me. “Clever, clever girl. I’m rather surprised you figured that out.”

  “How did you do it?”

  “There are so many poisons to choose from, you know. All you need is a little something to mask the taste or color. The poison was in your soup at lunch, by the way, not the champagne. I don’t think it’s appropriate to adulterate champagne.”

  “What did you use?”

  “I don’t remember the name. Don’t look so worried. It wasn’t plutonium. You’ll be fine.”

  I remembered reading about a Russian spy who’d been poisoned with plutonium, and his agonizing death in London. Gavin looked pleased with himself, having thoroughly unnerved me.

  “Why?” I demanded. “You already had me here. Why poison me?”

  “I had you here, but I didn’t want to be obvious about keeping you a hostage,” Gavin explained. “My hope was that you would be too sick to get out of bed, and hence you’d be less of a security concern. Also, your illness would be perfect cover for making you disappear suddenly, if I needed that to happen.”

  “But the police would know—”

  “They would do damn all.”

  “But they know about Skye…” The words died as I caught Gavin’s expression. “Wait, the police don’t know about Skye? What about the paramedics who took her body?”

  “Lily, don’t you understand anything about the hotel business?” Gavin ground out one cigarette and lit another. “Do you think I want the police poking around here under any circumstances? I’m already up to my eyeballs in bribes I have to pay. I really don’t need more complications.”

  “What did you do with Skye’s body?” I breathed.

  “My people will make it look like another cartel killing. There are so many of those around here, no one will notice. Or care.”

  “She was your lover,” I said. “She cared about you.”

  “I know. I can’t let myself think about her just now. It’s too hard. I suppose I revealed as much of myself to her as I ever have to anyone.” He said this quietly, as if it were a guilty admission. “But it was also exhausting. Keeping up pretenses, I mean. Pretending I cared about the meaningless things she cared about. She was a child in so many ways. All of the idiotic, romantic ideas she carried around…” His breathing was ragged. He wasn’t as self-controlled as he believed. “Mind you, she lied to me, too. All these months, I believed she was only seeing me. She had some other man lined up to raise the child with her if I wouldn’t.” He stared at the painting of Proserpine. “I suppose we’ve both been spinning our webs around each other all this time.”

  It sounded awful, but it also felt familiar. How many couples had lies pile up between them, so large that they overshadowed the relationship itself? What could you do but pretend you didn’t see them, unless you wanted that relationship to crack apart?

  “I don’t understand why you think Martin killed her,” I said. “What could he possibly gain?”

  “Skye thought she was so clever. She was going to write this big tell-all about Pantheon if I didn’t marry her. She’d dug up quite a lot of dirt, actually. It would’ve destroyed my career and landed me on jail. Of course, it would’ve done the same thing to Martin. He might have killed her for that reason alone. Knowing him, I believe it was more personal. He was furious that I’d gotten you down here, and that was his way of showing me he was still in control.”

  “I don’t believe that for a second.”

  “How sweet, Lily. You still defend him.”

  “It’s a crazy theory.”

  “Be that as it may, I will avenge her death,” Gavin said. “I promise you that.”

  “You were already going to kill Martin,” I pointed out.

  “That’s true.” Gavin looked thoughtful. “But he won’t be the only one to die.”

  I didn’t ask if he was going to kill me. That was something I took for granted.

  CHAPTER 44

  It was one in the morning when three SUVs pulled up in front of the Hotel Cerón. “Here we are. The grand duel is about to begin,” Gavin said. We watched on the computer screen, and it felt like an old movie. A bald, black man in a dark suit got out of the middle SUV, walked to the other side, and opened the door. The man who got out was dressed as Martin dressed, but a brimmed hat shielded his face from view. As he moved away from the vehicle, it was obvious that he wasn’t Martin. He moved hesitantly, without Martin’s bravado and confidence. And even though he was roughly the same height and build, he was much too thin.

  “Son of a bitch!” Gavin yelled. “It’s a trick!” He grabbed my arm. “Did you know Martin was sending someone in his stead?”

  “No. I haven’t spoken with him since this afternoon. You’re the one who told me he was coming here. I never heard that from him.”

  “I can’t believe it. That lying bastard!” Gavin was on the verge of tears. He picked up the computer and smashed it on the tile floor. While he was stomping it and cursing, there was a knock on the door.

  “Mr. Sklar is here, sir.” That sounded like Eduardo.

  Gavin let out a string of curses before he opened the door. He froze, as if turned to stone.

  “Hello, Gavin,” Martin said. “Long time, no see.” He peered into the room. “Lily, sweetheart. You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

  If he hadn’t spoken, I wouldn’t have recognized him. My former fiancé had always reminded me of Tyrone Power, the matinee idol who’d starred opposite Ava Gardner in The Sun Also Rises. But Martin had become a gaunt shadow of his former self. He was still impeccably dressed, as he always was, wearing a trench coat thrown over his shoulders, a well-cut black suit and white shirt, a pale blue scarf tied at his throat, and a matching pocket square. It was if he were planning to attend a yacht party after he took care of this bit of business. He smiled at me, but his face looked sunken and lined. I felt an unfamiliar sensation of pity for him wash over me. I’d wished terrible things on him after Claudia’s funeral, and I’d hoped his empire would crumble to dust, but I’d never wished for this.

  “Martin.” My voice was breathy, like a starlet over-reading her lines. I couldn’t help it. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “Well, I had no choice but to come to Mexico. Not with everything that’s been going on at the Hotel Cerón.” He shot a look at Gavin, who was standing near him, looking as tense and taut as a hawk watching its prey.

  “You’re not pronouncing the name correctly,” Gavin said. “The emphasis is on the second syllable in Spanish. I can’t imagine you haven’t learned that by now.”

  “You’re the expert on Mexico, Gavin.” Martin’s tone was mild.

  “I’m rather an expert on many things.” The self-satisfaction in Gavin’s
voice was impossible to miss. His self-possession was returning, after that terrible outburst before he’d opened the door.

  “Yes, we’ll be speaking about that,” Martin said. “But there’s no reason to bore Lily. Sweetheart, I have a car waiting outside. Would you go, now, please?”

  “No, Martin, that won’t do. Lily is going to stay put.” Gavin was slyly confident. “What I can’t believe is that you brought three carloads of bodyguards with you. You are getting more paranoid every day.” From the motion of his head, I could see he was trying to look down the hallway and count how many there were.

  “You’ve got plenty of armed guards right here, Gavin. Or is that a new development, since people started dying at this hotel?”

  “You don’t like having your own methods used against you, do you, Martin?”

  “No, I suppose I don’t. Look, let’s work this out like reasonable people. Lily will go outside and get in the car. My bodyguards will stay outside with yours and they’ll wait while the two of us talk privately in this room.” His eyes swept over the interior again, and I knew he was trying to check if any guards were inside with me.

  “All right, we’ll have your bodyguards and the hotel’s guards stay outside,” Gavin said. “However, Lily stays in the room. Apolinar, come here.”

  “That’s one of your guards,” Martin said, his expression grim.

  “He’s a business associate. The fact that he handles security for the hotel is a plus.”

  “Fine. Mr. Muñoz can stay. But Lily goes outside.”

  Gavin shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s out of the question.” He turned to his own guards. “You can go outside with Mr. Sklar’s men.”

  “That okay with you, Mr. Sklar?” asked a man with a deep baritone.

  “It’s fine, Nevins. Thank you,” Martin answered. He turned to look at me. It was hard to return his gaze. I hadn’t ever planned to see him again, for so many reasons. Now that we were in the same room, my heart ached because he looked as if he were dying. It wasn’t just the muscle and tissue that had wasted away; Martin was normally so animated. Now his hands hung at his sides, as if it would be too much trouble to lift them. His eyes were still startling, green the shade of natural absinthe, and they were steady and serious. I was more afraid for him than I was for myself.

  CHAPTER 45

  After martin and apolinar stepped into the Urdaneta Room, I heard footsteps marching out of the hallway, presumably moving toward the lobby. Gavin looked around the room. “Well, now. How cozy that it’s just us.” his voice was cool and smooth. He was so pleased with himself that he was almost purring.

  “Knock it off, Gavin,” Martin said.

  “I don’t think so. I know how tiresome you find it when anyone else talks for more than a minute in a meeting, Martin. You’re the only one who gets to drone on and on endlessly. But think of this as my meeting. I’m the one running it.”

  “You’ve done a hell of a job running the show down here, haven’t you?”

  “I’ve been taking care of matters at Pantheon for some time now, while you lope from crisis to crisis in your personal life. I admit, it’s a shock to see you looking so ghastly. I was already going to suggest that you make a plan of succession, but it’s obvious that one is absolutely necessary.”

  “I see,” Martin said. “Undoubtedly, you’ve got papers ready for me to sign.”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  “Then what?”

  “If everything is in order after that, and you don’t try anything clever, I’ll let Lily go,” Gavin said. He didn’t say a word about what he had in mind for Martin; he didn’t have to. The air was heavy with it.

  “I’ll leave the cleverness to you, Gavin. Here’s the problem. I can’t put you in charge of the company. I don’t get to appoint the next CEO. The board will have to vote.”

  “You can suggest it in the strongest possible terms, and the board with go along with it,” Gavin said. “I have strong support on the board already. This will just make the transition a certainty.”

  Martin laughed a little, but the sound he made was dry and crackly and not at all convincing. “Gavin, you made a good lieutenant for years. I acknowledge that. But you in charge of the operation in Mexico has been a disaster.”

  “Really? Why do you say that?” Gavin’s jaw was so tight the last word was almost hissed out. “I’ve made money here hand over fist.”

  “I’m not going into the whys and wherefores—”

  “Because they bloody well don’t exist!”

  “No, Gavin. I won’t because Lily’s here. If I start explaining where you’ve gone wrong, you’ll become increasingly reluctant to let her leave.” Martin’s voice was surprisingly understated. He had to be furious, being held hostage, for all intents and purposes, by his employee inside his own hotel. But he didn’t show it.

  “You’re just an empty suit and an empty brain,” Gavin sniped. “The only reason you’re running the company is because your father founded it. You have no talent or expertise at all.”

  “I built it up. I made Pantheon into a global empire.”

  “I did that for you. I’ve worked like a dog for years, and you get all the glory. You need people around you, all the time, to keep you amused and to keep all of your anxieties and insecurities at bay.”

  “Gavin, you can keep insulting me all day if you like. But Lily should leave.”

  “Absolutely not. You know, Lily and I had the nicest chat this morning. It was all about what a coward you are. Isn’t that right, Lily?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “It would be a surprise to her to learn you’re completely gormless. But perhaps she’ll find this amusing. That kidnapping threat that’s kept you out of Mexico? I was the one behind it.”

  The silence in the room was deafening, until Martin said, “I know.”

  “The hell you did!” Gavin yelled. “You knew damn all.”

  “I didn’t realize it at the time. It took me a while to piece it together. In fact, it was only recently that I did. It hit me one day, how funny it was I could never go down to Mexico. I had to trust you to run the show for me here. Gallant Gavin, such a stand-up guy, willing to brave great danger for the company. And those profits! You just kept them climbing. What a great show.”

  This enraged Gavin more than anything had. “You knew nothing.”

  “I didn’t keep tabs on you the way I should have. But when I started looking… let’s just say you weren’t good at covering your tracks. You were sloppy, Gavin.”

  Gavin stepped forward, punching Martin in the chest. Martin reeled and went down.

  “You think you’re good at figuring things out, Martin? Let me give you a little lesson. I’ll show you who’s sloppy.” Gavin put his hand out. “Apolinar, your gun please.”

  “Sir?” Apolinar looked anxious.

  “Gun.” Gavin put out his hand.

  Apolinar took the gun out of the holster at his waist and handed it over. Gavin tested the weight in his hand. “Is the safety on?”

  “No.”

  “Good.” Gavin pointed the gun at Martin, then swiveled around. He shot Apolinar in the stomach and the man fell back and hit the ground. Apolinar lifted his head, touching his hands to the hole in his gut. They came away red. His mouth was open, but no sound came out.

  “That’s what you get for being Martin’s spy,” Gavin raged.

  Apolinar was trying to say something, but blood bubbled to his lips. He looked at me and mouthed something, then closed his eyes. He was clearly in agonizing pain. I went to Apolinar, kneeling on the ground beside him. I didn’t know much about him except that he’d done some vile things in his time; he’d known Gavin planned to murder Martin, and he was prepared to help. But he’d also cared about getting Denny and me out of the hotel, and he was loyal to the memory of the man who’d lifted him out of the slums. That was enough to make my heart ache. I touched his forehead and he opened his eyes.

  “What did he promise you, you greed
y fool?” Gavin shouted. “More than I was paying? I hope you enjoy it in hell.”

  Gavin turned back to Martin, who was still on the ground. Only now, Martin was holding a gun in his hand.

  “Isn’t this an interesting turn of events?” Martin asked.

  “That looks like a stage prop in your hand,” Gavin taunted. “I know how to shoot. My father taught me long ago. You don’t.”

  “Ank,” Apolinar whispered, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

  “What?” I whispered.

  Gavin kept up his taunting. “Look at your hand, Martin. How it quivers. My, but you’re frail. How I wish the entire Pantheon board were here to watch this. They would be lining up to put a bullet into you.”

  Apolinar moved one leg, and I realized what he meant. He had an ankle holster. I grabbed the gun purely on instinct and raised it. Gavin’s head turned in my direction. Martin fired, and Gavin went down.

  CHAPTER 46

  Time slowed to a standstill. Martin was on the floor, breathing hard. Gavin was sprawled out, staring at the ceiling. Apolinar’s eyes were open wide. I touched his eyelids to close them, then went to Martin’s side.

  “Can you get up?” I asked, still in shock.

  “You’re still holding that gun,” he pointed out.

  “Oh!” I bent down, setting it on the floor. Martin grabbed it, making it disappear into a coat pocket.

  “Just give me a moment, sweetheart.”

  “What did I tell you about calling me sweetheart?” I knelt beside him and resisted a sudden urge to touch his face. His skin was so dry it looked as if he were at risk of flaking apart.