Done to Death

by Charles Atkins

  ‘No, but I remembered feeling bad for him. She did it in front of everyone. So I’m sure when you ask around, people heard. It must have been humiliating.’

  ‘Right.’ Mattie looked to Jamie.

  ‘Kind of a pattern,’ her partner said. ‘Sort of the same thing happened between Barry and Richard Parks, and possibly between him and Lenore.’

  ‘This is not good,’ Mattie said, her annoyance at Rachel’s disappearance replaced by something more ominous. ‘Call him,’ she said. ‘Lil, Ada, fun as always. We need to get a move on.’

  ‘And if she shows up?’ Ada asked.

  ‘Do not let her out of your sight and call immediately. And she might need medical attention, but call me first.’

  TWENTY-THREE

  By two a.m. Mattie’s worst fears were becoming reality. Rachel Parks had left, or been abducted … or worse, from the mansion. All of the Parks’ vehicles were accounted for.

  Rachel had said she was going to call Clarence and have him drive her to Lil and Ada’s. That call never happened. And Rachel’s bathroom, where Mattie now stood with Dr Ebert, was spattered with blood, a lot of it. Mattie examined the droplets and smears against the white ceramic of the tub. Streaks of dark red with pooling by the drain, drops on the floor and bloody finger- and handprints on the sink, which were small and definitely female. There was no evidence that she’d packed a bag and her iPhone was by the bed, hooked to a charger.

  ‘Could she have done this to herself?’ she asked the psychiatrist.

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘She cuts, usually on her upper arms and inner thigh. The only times she went for her wrists were when she wanted Lenore to see.’

  ‘This much?’ Mattie asked. She looked for the means and saw no razor or box cutter, the preferred implements of cutters she’d encountered through the years.

  Dr Ebert, who even in the middle of the night managed to look professional in a navy blazer over a striped button-down shirt, shook his head. ‘She’s a superficial cutter. And she cleans up afterward. She doesn’t want people to know when she does it, and it fills her with horrible shame.’

  ‘You’ve actually seen—’

  ‘A couple times. When she was fourteen Lenore and I thought it might be helpful to have me stay for a few weeks. We were working on an intensive therapy. So yes, I’ve been in this same bathroom after she’s cut. So the good news, if there’s any, is this is where she’d go to cut. The bad news is that she’s tidy, and this isn’t.’

  Mattie mulled through his words. ‘You said she didn’t want people to know. Anyone in particular?’

  ‘Her brother,’ he answered without pause.

  ‘And he’s dead,’ Mattie said. ‘Maybe that’s why it’s such a mess. Her reason to hide it is gone.’

  ‘It’s possible.’ He stared at the congealed blood near the tub drain. ‘It’s too much. She’s gone too far.’

  Mattie’s cell rang. She picked up. It was Kevin Simpson.

  ‘I’m outside with the search and rescue team. We got a pooch,’ he said.

  ‘Bring them up. They can get the scent from here.’ She glanced at her watch − two twenty-four in the morning. Over two hours since Rachel had disappeared. Not good, none of this was good. ‘If she cut herself, where’s the razor?’

  Ebert’s dark eyes met her. ‘That’s what I’m worried about. She’s got it with her. This isn’t her pattern.’

  A powerful tan-and-black German shepherd entered Rachel’s bedroom, its leash tight in the grip of a thin brunet in a dark green parka and khakis with a canine search and rescue patch on her shoulder. Kevin Simpson was behind her.

  ‘This is Officer Margaret James,’ he said.

  ‘And this is Perry,’ the handler said, indicating the dog. ‘This is the missing woman’s room?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Mattie said. ‘There’s blood in the bathroom.’

  ‘That should do.’ She walked Perry to Rachel’s bed. She gave the one word command, ‘Scent,’ and then walked the dog to the bathroom. ‘Scent.’ She looked back at Mattie. ‘We’re good to go.’

  ‘OK to follow?’ Mattie asked.

  ‘Not a problem, just stay a bit behind.’ She stroked the top of the dog’s head. ‘Perry, find.’

  The dog’s posture shifted, ears up, tail back, and his nose, like a pointer, shifted from the bathroom to the door leading to the deck. With Margaret giving him his lead he headed for the door.

  Mattie, Dr Ebert and Kevin trailed behind.

  Having checked when they’d first arrived, Mattie knew that the door was unlocked. Her earlier suspicions that this was how Rachel left, or was taken, were now confirmed by Perry the dog. Her anxiety surged as she remembered how this was also the mode of access and egress for Richard Parks’ murderer.

  The dog didn’t hesitate as he trotted down the steps, his pace slowed only by his handler. ‘If it was light, I’d let him off the leash,’ Margaret explained as they all pulled out flashlights. The dog headed straight toward the pool and then past the cabana.

  Mattie noted lengths of crime scene tape strewn on the ground, most of it added by the film crew. There were empty coffee cups and plates at the tables that surrounded the pool, and here and there cigarette butts.

  The dog trotted around the cabana. His nose pointed into the darkened woods that encircled the mansion.

  The pit in Mattie’s stomach tightened; she could guess where they were headed. She heard the rushing water of the river to their right. With their beams trained on the ground they slowed their pace to avoid tripping on roots and rocks. Perry’s eager snuffles and the noise of crickets did little to calm her. Fifteen minutes later and they were at the break in the chain-link fence.

  Perry butted his nose against the metal and looked back at Margaret.

  ‘Good boy.’ She turned to Mattie. ‘Keep going?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Her cell rang. It was Jamie. They’d split up after leaving Lil and Ada’s. ‘What you got?’

  ‘An airtight alibi for Barry Stromstein. And you?’

  ‘We’re at the spot in the fence where Richard’s killer came and left.’

  ‘Crap,’ Jamie said.

  ‘I know. So tell me about this alibi.’

  And Jamie, who was at the Grenville Suites Hotel, told Mattie that Barry and company had been holed up all night working on storyboards for the day’s shooting.

  ‘No breaks?’ Mattie asked.

  ‘Not long enough to get out there and abduct, or whatever. So I’ve been doing the bed count thing.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘More than one person can possibly handle. A lot of horny twenty- and thirty-year-olds in a hotel in the country. Apparently there were not enough rooms to go around.’

  ‘Any notable absences?’

  ‘Nothing leaping out. It’s weird, this whole vibe.’

  Mattie watched as Kevin held back the fence for the dog, the trainer and Dr Ebert to pass through. Kevin looked at her and, still talking to Jamie, she eased through. ‘What do you mean weird?’ Mattie looked at Perry as he sniffed the road’s edge. The dog looked up. His posture stiffened.

  ‘Not good,’ Margaret said.

  Mattie didn’t need to hear it. ‘The trail ends? She got in a car, didn’t she?’

  The dog handler nodded. ‘It looks that way.’

  Mattie shook her head as Jamie offered her impression of the LPP all-nighter at the hotel. She stared down the road, where the dog’s nose pointed like a compass. Rachel could be anywhere. She could be dead.

  The dog started down the road and then stopped. He sniffed the ground and then raised his head.

  ‘That’s odd,’ Margaret said.

  ‘What?’ Mattie asked, her cell to her ear as she walked next to the handler. She threw her beam over the road and saw fresh skid marks. ‘They left in a hurry.’ She swept the light in a circle; dense woods on either side of the road that led from Lenore’s back to Grenville, or to the interstate. Increasingly, this looked as though Rachel did not leave of her own
volition. ‘Go back,’ she said to Jamie. ‘What did you just say?’

  ‘Which part?’ Jamie asked.

  ‘About making things tough for the contestants?’

  ‘They call it FWT or FWC, Fucking with the Talent or with the Contestants. Apparently it’s a thing you do in reality shows to keep them interesting. They throw unexpected obstacles at the talent. Which I guess in the case of Final Reckoning are the dealers competing for Lenore’s estate.’

  ‘So things they won’t see coming,’ Mattie said, wondering if this weren’t a complete goose chase. The girl was missing and her chief suspect, and his crew, were all present and accounted for. Which left a few hundred people who hated and/or were afraid of Lenore, but other than revenge wouldn’t directly profit from her death. ‘FWT,’ she muttered, as Kevin called for a car to meet them. ‘So what do they have planned?’

  ‘That’s just it,’ Jamie said. ‘And I wonder if it matters. But I get the sense that nothing is planned. According to one of the grips, shows like this go through a development process that’s at least a couple months long, sometimes years. Every episode is planned out, and even though it’s supposed to be live action and spontaneous, it’s mostly scripted. Although they’re careful not to say so.’

  ‘We knew this,’ Mattie said. The New York detectives had confirmed that, prior to Monday, Final Reckoning hadn’t existed. ‘What am I missing?’

  ‘This,’ Jamie said. ‘When word got out that Rachel was missing, I heard more than one crew member say it had to be the FWT.’

  ‘And when Barry found out?’

  ‘He wasn’t heartbroken.’

  ‘The show must go on?’

  ‘Yup, although …’ Jamie seemed pensive on the line. ‘If Rachel is dead, who’s left? If we go back to the basics – you know, follow the money – then who stands to profit? We’ve got a handful of cousins in the Carolinas, none of whom is named in the will. So even if they stand to inherit, it will be well over a year, maybe several, before her estate clears probate. Chances are the lawyers would see more than any heirs.’

  ‘Plus two unborn babies that we’re not even sure exist,’ Mattie said.

  ‘Not trying to be funny,’ Jamie said, ‘I’m thinking they’ll have an alibi.’

  ‘We’ve got to find this surrogate,’ Mattie said.

  ‘According to Detective Murphy, Lenore’s Park Avenue obstetrician won’t release anything. Even with a subpoena he can fight it under doctor–patient privilege. With Lenore dead, why would he care?’

  ‘Good question; so someone else is involved. Someone who doesn’t want him leaking the information. But we know a few things. Lenore needed to be in control. Going with that, the surrogate is someone she’d have under her thumb. Someone she could control. She’s going to be an LPP employee, and I’d be willing to bet money she’s right under our noses.’

  TWENTY-FOUR

  ‘Lil.’ Ada put down her vampire novel, unable to focus. It was four a.m. on Saturday morning and neither woman could sleep. Their faces glowed by the light of their iPads. ‘I can’t stop thinking about Rachel.’

  ‘I know,’ Lil said, her mind going too fast for sleep. She listened to the night noises − crickets and frogs. A couple hours back she’d called Mattie, who’d been close-lipped. She knew from experience that the detective wouldn’t give her the full story, not unless she had something to trade. ‘Where would she go?’

  ‘That’s the thing. We don’t really know her. Just weird bits of her and her brother, and then he’s killed and she’s calling, sounding like she’s five. What if it’s an act? And I know it’s irrational, but I feel responsible. If I hadn’t come up with this stupid idea, none of this would have happened.’

  ‘Ada, Lenore had already been shot when we got to the city. This isn’t our doing.’

  ‘I said it wasn’t rational, but I can’t shake it. The more I think about how Rachel acted yesterday, the more I realize we shouldn’t have been shooting that damn show. Lil, she was pretending to be her mother. Although I don’t know if “pretend” is the right word. It’s almost like she was Lenore, if that makes any sense. I keep seeing her in my head. She’s obviously unstable … and all day long—’

  ‘What?’ Lil asked.

  ‘All day long,’ Ada pressed back against the headboard, ‘we were being filmed all day long.’

  ‘Isn’t that the point?’

  ‘I don’t know. We did takes and there’d be multiple cameras. But even between takes I’d see that the red lights were on. At first it bothered me, and then, yeah … that’s the point of a reality show.’

  Lil pondered. ‘So the show, and then … was anything happening?’

  Ada shook her head. ‘I drank a lot of tea and Rachel talked … a lot. And they filmed it all.’

  ‘What was she talking about?’ Lil asked.

  ‘If I were to sum it up, she was weirdly hopeful, but not quite right. She’s excited about having a baby and would talk about her brother and her mother, but it all felt disconnected. I thought she might be in shock and that it had just not hit her yet. But maybe that’s not it.’

  ‘Give me some specifics.’

  Ada gazed at the sliders. ‘She said that they were always with her, Richard and Lenore.’

  ‘That doesn’t sound so odd.’

  ‘What if she meant it literally? Like she really thinks they’re still there and not some idea of the dearly departed watching over her? There was other stuff, and to be honest I tuned her out at times. I don’t usually do that.’

  ‘Ada, you were with her the whole day. You got there at five a.m., and they didn’t wrap till after ten. Which … what will they do without Rachel?’

  ‘I’d say pull the plug, but what do you want to bet Melanie will be here in an hour with coffee and bagels? I know why I tuned her out,’ Ada said.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Listening to her made me feel worse. Because I know she’s crazy, so I sat and nodded and spaced out. And thinking back through the day, it was when she started to talk about her new life. That’s what’s killing me.’

  ‘What? I’m missing something.’

  ‘The cameras: what if this show turns into some horrible documentary of Rachel’s meltdown? It’s going to come off like a freak show, from her physical transformation to these rambles about her mother and brother. This is why I feel like crap. I’m a part of it. Oh Lil …’

  ‘Ada, you’ve done nothing wrong.’

  ‘I’m not so sure of that. And where is she?’ She pushed back the covers and got out of bed. ‘I can’t stand this. Lil, we’ve got to do something.’

  ‘I know …’ And Lil was up and headed toward the closet.

  ‘There are probably dozens of police out looking for her,’ Ada said. ‘So what’s two more middle-aged women?’

  Lil stopped. She looked at Ada, who was throwing on a Prussian blue track suit. ‘I love you so much,’ she said.

  Ada chuckled. ‘That’s because no one else will go with you, in the dead of night, to find a missing heiress.’

  ‘There is that … Oh my goodness.’

  ‘What?’ Ada said.

  ‘I’m married to Nancy Drew.’

  ‘She was gay?’ Ada asked.

  ‘I often wondered. Did she have a boyfriend?’

  ‘We both know that doesn’t mean a thing. Look at Lenore.’

  ‘There’s so much information we’re missing,’ Lil commented. ‘To start, with Richard dead do we know for certain that Rachel is the heir?’

  ‘She’s the natural heir. Whether or not Lenore structured things differently, we don’t know. If Rachel were my daughter, I’d set up a trust. The thought of her with that much money … not good.’ Fully dressed, Ada caught a glimpse of the two of them in the mirror on the back of the closet door. Her in a blue track suit and Lil in a burgundy one. She snorted. ‘We look like two of the Power Rangers.’

  ‘I never understood that show. My girls watched it.’

  ‘Part of me fe
els like we’re running away,’ Ada said.

  ‘From the film crew, from Final Reckoning?’

  ‘Don’t laugh, but yes, and we should hurry.’

  Lil grabbed her keys and the satchel with her camera and laptop from her nightstand. ‘Maybe that’s what Rachel did,’ she said. ‘Maybe she realized this whole thing is in bad taste and, rather than be a part of it, she bolted.’

  ‘It’s a thought,’ Ada said. They headed to the front door. ‘We should tell Aaron we’re going out. He’s going to be so disappointed.’ Ada stopped, her hand on the knob.

  There was a light knock on the other side.

  Lil looked over Ada’s shoulder and turned on the outdoor light. ‘Speak of the devil.’

  ‘Aaron.’ Ada opened the door to see her grandson, freshly showered, in jeans and a red hoodie.

  He looked from his grandmother to Lil. ‘What are you two up to?’

  ‘Going for a drive,’ Ada said.

  ‘I see that.’ His tone was suspicious. ‘Grandma, you’ve got a seven o’clock call, which means hair and make-up no later than five.’

  ‘Aaron, why are you out here?’ she asked.

  ‘I wanted to be ready when they came.’

  ‘It’s four a.m.’

  ‘I don’t want to miss them.’

  Ada looked into her grandson’s eyes. His excitement was obvious. On the list of people she loved in this world, his name would be one of the top four out of her mouth. She glanced back at Lil. ‘We want to drive around, and maybe see what’s happened to Rachel.’

  ‘But didn’t Mattie want you to stay here in case she turns up?’ he asked, having had a first hand view of how Ada and Lil intruded into police investigations, at times with terrifying results.

  ‘You’ll be here,’ Ada said. She stepped into the cool pre-dawn air.

  ‘You’re running away,’ he said.

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ Ada said.

  ‘They’ll film it anyway.’

  ‘I figured that,’ she said. ‘Huh? Aaron, you’re the same age as Rachel.’

  ‘Yeah, but my mom’s not a bazillionaire and, sadly, I do know who my father is.’

  ‘True, but if you were to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, where would you go?’