by L. T. Vargus
Charlie stepped closer to where Marjory sat. There was another chair across the table from her, but Charlie didn’t want to sit down. Instead, she rested her hands on the backrest and leaned forward.
“Brandon told me he was the one who ran Gloria down that day,” Charlie said. “I know why he did it. I know Gloria had found out about the two of you. But I don’t know how she discovered it.”
Charlie thought Marjory might refuse to answer, but apparently Marjory’s earlier confession had greased the wheels, and the words just flowed out of her mouth.
“She saw us… together. At least we thought she did.” Marjory stared down at her hands. “Trevor was gone, so Brandon was at the house. We didn’t usually meet there. It was too risky, but… Gloria came by to ask me something about the foundation. She must have seen Brandon’s car in the driveway and wondered what we were doing together. She was so suspicious after Dad died, she must have thought we were up to something. Which we were… just not what she thought. She came in so quietly. We were on the back veranda, by the pool. I was in Brandon’s lap, and he practically threw me off the way he stood up when Gloria opened the back door. She was always being sneaky like that. Used to listen in on my phone calls when we were kids. Daddy always acted like the sun shone out of her ass. Gave her all this credit for keeping the family together, but I always thought she was just a bossy busybody.”
Marjory’s lips pursed in annoyance, and then she went on.
“Anyway, I’m pretty sure she saw us. She tried to play it off like everything was normal, but we could tell something was wrong. Brandon hatched the plan for me to go up to the cabin with a friend immediately, so I’d have an alibi. And he took the job of following Gloria.”
She said it casually, as if the entire scenario made perfect sense. As if it was all somehow logical to murder Gloria in cold blood just to protect their incestuous secret. Their sister. Their flesh and blood. Charlie didn’t realize she was shaking her head in disgust until Marjory’s head snapped up.
“Don’t you dare judge me. You only think it’s wrong because society has brainwashed you into thinking that way. You don’t understand how close the two of us were, me and Brandon. We weren’t even a whole year apart. We were practically twins.”
“Uh, as an actual twin, I have to say I don’t see how that helps her case,” Allie said.
Marjory jabbed a finger into the tabletop.
“We had a bond. He always protected me. And me him. We were one.”
Not interested in hearing Marjory rant about the tainted love she shared with her brother, Charlie pushed off from the back of the chair and turned to the door. Just as her fingers brushed the metal of the door handle, Marjory spoke again.
“He never cared about you. I hope you know that.”
Charlie paused, trying to make sense of what Marjory was saying. Was Marjory actually jealous at the way Brandon had tried to use flirtation as a way to manipulate her? And did she think Charlie could retain even a hint of warm feelings for Brandon after he’d tried to kill her?
“Jealousy isn’t a logical monster, Chuck,” Allie said. “And neither is love, as sick as hers is.”
Charlie realized Allie was right. Marjory loved Brandon. Whether the inverse was true, Charlie couldn’t be sure. The way Brandon had spoken of Marjory in his last hour hadn’t seemed especially affectionate. She suspected that Marjory had been just another pawn to him.
Charlie turned the handle and opened the door, but before she passed through, she asked Marjory one final question.
“He really did a number on you, didn’t he?”
EPILOGUE
“I don’t see why the blindfold is necessary,” Frank said. “Why can’t I just close my eyes?”
“Because I know you. You’ll peek.” Charlie flapped the bandana in the air between them. “Put it on.”
Frank snatched it from her and wrapped it around his eyes.
“This better be worth it.”
Charlie rubbed her palms together then gave Paige a thumbs up, which was her signal to run to the back room and make sure everything was ready.
Taking Frank by the elbow, Charlie led him down the hallway to the back office. He took slow, shuffling steps, like he was afraid he might fall.
“You can walk faster than that,” she said. “I’ve got you.”
“I’m supposed to just trust you won’t run me into a wall? I’ve seen you trip over your own two feet, turkey.”
When they finally reached the back room, Charlie maneuvered him until he was facing the door.
“Wait here,” she said, scurrying into the room and taking her place. “At the count of three, you can take the blindfold off.”
“Lotta fuss,” he muttered.
Charlie locked eyes with Paige, and they began counting in unison.
“One… two… three…” They held the banner high and waited until Frank had torn off the blindfold before they yelled, “Surprise!”
Paige popped a balloon filled with confetti while Charlie pressed play on her phone. Queen’s “We Are the Champions” blared from the speakers she’d set up on the small dining table.
Frank chuckled and read the sign Charlie and Paige had spent the previous day coloring with magic markers.
“‘Fuck cancer,’” he said, nodding. “Fuck cancer, indeed.”
Charlie turned the music down and pointed out how clean the back room was since she and Paige had finally made their way through most of Frank’s packrat stash.
“There’s actually, you know, room to walk around and everything,” she said. “What do you think?”
“I think I’d like to know what you did with all my stuff. That’s what I think.”
“Your junk, you mean?”
“Some of that was useful, and not only that, but—”
“I’m going to stop you before you go on about how one day those Happy Meal toys are going to be worth a fortune.” Charlie handed him one of Paige’s cupcakes. “Here. Try this.”
He took a big bite and then licked a smear of frosting from his lips.
“Hey now.” Frank waggled his eyebrows. “That’s good eatin’.”
She glanced over at Paige and found her grinning and blushing at the compliment.
“Is that a fresh raspberry filling?” Frank asked, taking another bite. “I love a good raspberry dessert, but most people screw it up. They make the raspberries too sweet.”
“I feel exactly the same way,” Paige said. “The original recipe had it all wrong. It called for store-bought raspberry jam, if you can believe it.”
Frank helped himself to another cupcake.
“Ludicrous.”
They scarfed more cupcakes and listened to the classic rock playlist Charlie had made that was full of Frank’s favorites, and Frank told a few of his best P.I. stories, like the time he’d been hired to track down a person who’d been regularly leaving poop in someone’s mailbox.
“Turns out it was the guy’s own brother, mad about some joint business venture,” Frank said. “And he was lucky that his brother didn’t want to press charges once he found out who the culprit was. Vandalizing a mailbox is a federal crime, and he would have been in deep shit. Pun intended.”
“Oh!” Paige clapped her hands. “Speaking of being in deep doodoo… did you see the news? We’re famous!”
Charlie raised an eyebrow.
“We’re what?”
“Our case. It was all over the TV last night,” Paige said, getting out her phone and bringing up a clip from one of the Detroit news stations.
“Earlier today, the FBI stormed the estate of the late Randolph ‘Dutch’ Carmichael,” the news anchor said.
The studio footage cut to an aerial shot from a drone or helicopter. It showed the Feds swarming around the Carmichael mansion, loading boxes and other items into trucks.
Big bold letters at the bottom of the screen read: MASSIVE PONZI SCHEME.
Charlie shook her head.
“They can s
eize the lot of it, sell it off, do whatever they can to squeeze every last penny out of it, but it won’t be enough. Gloria told me her accounting of the assets at the house totaled a few million dollars. Carmichael Investments bilked their investors out of billions. Those people are going to lose everything.”
“That’s why I invested the bulk of my portfolio in rare Happy Meal toys,” Frank said. “More stable than gold is what my financial adviser told me.”
“And who would that be, exactly?” Charlie asked. “Ronald McDonald?”
Noting the time, Charlie dusted cupcake crumbs from her hands and grabbed her bag.
“I have to get going if I’m going to make it before the end of visiting hours.” Charlie gave Frank a quick hug. “Congrats again on the remission.”
“Thank you for this little celebration, turkey. I assume the half-nekkid lady jumping out of the giant cake comes later?” Frank smiled at his joke and held a cupcake out. “Take this to your mother, and give her my best, will you?”
Charlie accepted the cupcake and nodded before heading out the door.
The Cedar Grove Healing Center was located in a setting that reminded Charlie a bit of a summer camp. Down a winding dirt road through densely wooded land. Over a small bridge with a babbling creek running underneath it. Nestled in a clearing with a duck pond and a garden and paths that wove around the grounds.
The buildings were all stately brick affairs with glossy green ivy clinging to the sides.
Charlie checked in at the reception desk, and a nurse led her to her mother’s room. It was small, but cozy and neat. It felt more like a dorm than a hospital. Nice enough, but it wasn’t home.
Nancy sat in a rocker, watching TV. She greeted Charlie and thanked her for the things she’d brought—her book of crossword puzzles, a framed photo of her and Allie as kids, several changes of clothes—but otherwise she didn’t speak much. She did make sure to say Charlie’s name several times, as if reassuring the both of them that she was in her right mind.
Charlie convinced her mother to go for a walk around the grounds, thinking that might perk her up. She brightened a bit when showing Charlie the koi pond and miniature waterfall at one end of the grounds. But overall, her mother seemed hazy. Zoned out. Charlie knew Dr. Kesselman and the doctors here were tweaking her meds again, and it would take some time for her to adjust.
They sat in silence for a while, watching the fish circling the murky water. Eventually, Charlie voiced the question on her mind.
“Do you think you’ll be ready to come home in a few days?”
Nancy turned her head and looked Charlie in the eye for the first time.
“Actually, I’ve been thinking I might stay.”
“Stay?”
“Stay here. They have a residential program. I’d have my own room, a lot like the one I’m in now, but bigger. And there’d be a communal kitchen I could use too.”
“But you have a kitchen, Mom,” Charlie said. “At home.”
“I know. But… maybe it’s time I face facts. I never wanted to be a burden to you.”
Charlie shook her head, trying not to cry.
“You’re not.”
“Yes, I am,” Nancy said. “I know I am, and I don’t say it for pity. The truth is I stopped taking care of you the day your sister went missing. And I think maybe the part of me that knew how to be a mother died somewhere along the way. It’s been you taking care of me since then, and that’s not right. That’s not how it should be.”
A tear slid down Charlie’s cheek. There had been times she’d felt bitter about the way her mother had changed since Allie’s death. Times she’d resented all of it. But just now she didn’t care.
“I don’t mind,” she said, her voice shaking.
“I do.” Nancy took Charlie’s hand and closed her eyes. “And it’s more than that. I almost hurt you. I could have killed you. I can’t allow that to happen again. Never.”
Charlie sniffed and wiped her cheek.
“OK, just… don’t make any decisions yet. Let’s see how things go from here before you make up your mind.” She squeezed her mother’s hand. “We’ll take things one day at a time.”
Nancy nodded and opened her eyes. As Nancy’s gaze wandered back to the rippling surface where the waterfall struck the pond below, Charlie could tell she was receding back into the medicated fog.
Charlie squeezed her mother’s hand once more and climbed to her feet.
Kissing the top of her head, Charlie whispered, “I love you, Mom.”
But as she walked away, Charlie wasn’t sure her mother had heard her over the sound of the water.
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BOOKS BY L.T. VARGUS AND TIM MCBAIN
DETECTIVE CHARLOTTE WINTERS SERIES
First Girl Gone
Girl Under Water
THE VIOLET DARGER SERIES
Dead End Girl
Image in a Cracked Mirror
Killing Season
The Last Victim
The Girl in the Sand
Bad Blood
Five Days Post Mortem
Into the Abyss
Night on Fire
THE VICTOR LOSHAK SERIES
Beyond Good & Evil
The Good Life Crisis
What Lies Beneath
Take Warning
Silent Night
Available in Audio
DETECTIVE CHARLOTTE WINTERS SERIES
First Girl Gone (Available in the UK and in the US)
A NOTE FROM L.T. AND TIM
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That’s all for now. Be on the lookout for more Charlie Winters soon.
L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain
FIRST GIRL GONE
DETECTIVE CHARLOTTE WINTERS BOOK 1
The girl’s chestnut hair sways gently in the shallow water, her skin is cold. Grains of sand decorate her beautiful white cheeks like freckles. First, she was taken from her family, and now it won’t be long before she’s taken by the tide…
Kara Dawkins is missing. One minute she was sitting on a park bench, her coat wrapped around her against the biting cold. The next minute, she was gone.
Her mother is beside herself with worry. Kara’s messy, poster-covered bedroom feels so empty without her lying across her bed with her headphones on, her feet tapping to the beat. Did she run away, or was she snatched? Does anyone know she’s been sneaking out at night, or about the secret hidden inside her jewellery box?
But then another girl’s body washes up on the beach a few days later, in the exact spot where the last trace of Detective Charlie Winters’ missing sister was found years ago. It can’t be a coincidence, not in a town as small as this. By taking Kara, someone is re-opening the wounds of the past and setting a deadly trap. And unless Charlie steps forward to take the bait, many more innocent victims will follow
…
An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller that will leave you gasping for breath. Fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Lisa Regan will need to sleep with the lights on!
Get it now!
Published by Bookouture in 2020
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain, 2020
L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain have asserted their right to be identified as the authors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-83888-834-3
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Books by L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28