“The morning of the day that Edith was found dead, I received a call. It was from a number that I didn’t recognize, so I let it go to voicemail.”
He lifted up his cell phone and played a recording he must have queued up prior to our meeting. The voice that issued from the phone was weirdly robotic, like it had been run through a computer program to disguise the voice. The strange metallic quality added to its frighteningly alien tone.
“Mr. Durant. Your sister Edith is now in our care. If you want her to be returned safely to you, please leave a bag containing three million dollars in clean cash in locker 32B at the Greyhound bus depot. Do not call the police. Do not call anyone. We’re watching you. Thank you.” The recording cut off.
“About twenty minutes later, a second call from that same number arrived,” Richard added. He pressed play again.
“Actually, please leave the money in locker 30B, not 32B. And do it by 10 p.m. Thank you,” said the robotized voice. It sounded vaguely sheepish under the heavy manipulation.
“It was immediately apparent to me that I was not dealing with the world’s most sophisticated kidnapper,” Richard told us seriously. “There were several things about the ransom call that tipped me off, not the least of which was the fact that he had to call twice and correct himself. The request for cash and not a wire transfer, the public location of the cash drop off, the lack of proof of life, and the fact that the kidnapper kept saying ‘please’? I’m not going to lie, it still scared the shit out of me, but it was obvious that he wasn’t a criminal mastermind. The assumption that I knew something, that I was smarter, that was my first mistake.”
Richard paused for a second. I struggled to absorb what I was hearing. Charlie’s face was still and unreadable, but my mind was spinning.
“Anyway, I called Edith to make sure it wasn’t a prank. She didn’t answer. Then I called the care home where Edith lived—she had an apartment at a sort-of assisted living center—and had them confirm that she was missing. They knocked on her door and when no one answered that was proof enough for me. Edith always answers her door. At that point I knew it was real.
“Then I called our insurance company and reported the ransom call. We have Kidnap and Ransom insurance, obviously. It’s a necessity at our income level. They got busy on getting us the money. I was perfectly happy to pay the ransom and so were they. Then I called Skylark, the military contractors that we’ve used in the past to negotiate these sorts of sensitive situations.
“Skylark sent over a negotiator who wanted to call the kidnapper back and begin negotiations once proof of life was established. That’s the normal procedure for kidnappings, they usually start with proof of life. The guy they sent was good. Nerves like steel and scary as hell. The only problem? The kidnapper wasn’t picking up. He ended up leaving a message and informing him that it would take at least twenty-four hours to secure the cash payment. That was the last contact we ever had with the kidnapper.
“Only four hours later, I got a call from the care home where Edith lived. They said that someone had been seen leaving Edith’s apartment. Inside, Edith was dead. And that’s it. Now you know what I know.”
After his story, Richard sighed and stared at the ground.
“I have a few questions,” Charlie said almost instantly. He’d produced a pen and notepad from seemingly nowhere and begun taking notes. My mind was still struggling with all the horrifying events that had just been described, but Charlie seemed to be several steps ahead. I must have looked lost or something because he grabbed my hand with his free one and held it tightly. I stared at the little scars that his steam burn had left when it healed and just listened.
For his part, Richard inclined his head politely. “Ask away.”
“What time of day did you receive the first call?”
Richard looked down at his phone and pressed a few buttons. “Nine-thirty a.m.”
“And the second call?”
“Nine forty-five.”
“When did you have the care home check on Edith?”
“I called them at ten, and they called me back at twelve after.”
Charlie fired question after question about the timeline and the details. He was performing full blown cross-examination on Richard. And he was relentless.
“When Edith’s body was discovered, how did you ensure that her care home did not call the police?”
“How do you think?” Richard said snidely. “I already owned the damn place. I simply threatened to have it turned into a parking lot.”
“And did Skylark Security perform any sort of investigation after Edith was found dead?”
“Of course. But they were unable to figure out the identity of the kidnappers. They’d been incompetent but were careful enough to avoid leaving any usable fingerprints, DNA, or proof they were ever in the apartment.”
“What about the witnesses at the care home?”
“One was Edith’s upstairs neighbor, Myra, who is ninety and mostly blind. The other was Edith’s downstairs neighbor, Dominic, who has his own issues. I don’t exactly remember what his story was, but he reported some nonsense equivalent to both men being ghosts of Elvis. I don’t think either one of them would have reported anything if the kidnapper hadn’t been extremely loud during his exit from the premises.”
“Why didn’t you just call the police?” I finally asked. It seemed so incredibly obvious to me that if the police had just been called, they could have broken down the door and saved Edith.
Richard looked at me condescendingly. “Because I wanted to pay the ransom. I didn’t give a shit about seeing the bad guys go to jail. All I wanted was Edith back safely. Involving the police would only scare the kidnapper who had already proven himself to be an amateur. I didn’t want them to do anything that could jeopardize her safety.”
I digested his words for a moment and found that I believed him. Charlie had an expression on his face that told me he believed Richard, too. Finally, Richard was telling the truth. About all of it.
31
Charlie
“Eva, I know we’ve been through this, but after what we just learned I don’t think you should stay here another night,” I told her as we walked back to her room from our meeting with Richard. “I understand why you want to stick it out, but I’m scared for you.”
At my side, I could feel Eva tense. She pulled her hand out of mine. In the quiet, marble hallways, our footfalls were loud while I waited for her to reply.
“I’m not running away,” she said. Her face was stubborn. “Nothing has changed, not really.”
“What would it take to make you quit? How dangerous does it have to be to drive you away?” Trying to keep my voice level and reasonable was a struggle.
She made an annoyed noise. “That’s a very patronizing question, Charlie. I don’t feel like I’m in any danger. I have locks on my door. I have a car if I need to leave. And I have a gun.”
I blinked in shock. “You have a gun?!” She’d never mentioned this before.
Eva’s face turned pink and she nodded.
“Yes. It’s an old revolver my dad gave me when I graduated from college and told him I was going to start working the hospital circuit in Atlanta. He knew I’d be working nights and wanted me to feel safe.”
“Do you know how to use it?”
“Of course. My dad’s in the military. He taught me and Dylan.”
As a general rule, I don’t like guns. Having grown up in the worst part of Philadelphia in the early nineties, I saw a lot of guns. I also saw a lot of gang violence, armed robberies, and drive by shootings. Guns were absolutely everywhere. In fact, next to drugs, guns were the commodity of choice.
Still, the idea of Eva having something with which to protect herself did make me feel slightly better. She was so petite and fragile looking. All I really wanted to do was take her away from the Durant mansion and all its intrigue and drama forever, but I knew that any attempt to do so would backfire horribly. So instead of putt
ing my foot in my mouth and starting a fight, I nodded.
“Will you promise to start carrying it?” I asked her.
She made a face at me like it was a totally ridiculous request.
“Why?”
“Because it would make me feel better.”
“Charlie, that’s silly.”
“Is it? We just learned that in addition to Stephen and Edith being killed, one of them was a botched kidnapping. Someone close enough to this family to know who Edith was and where she lived planned out her kidnapping.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It means that they probably studied her for a while. They would have needed to in order to execute her kidnapping. This person figured out where Edith was and what her schedule was like. There was forethought involved and that tells me that whoever killed Edith, and probably whoever killed Stephen, has some kind of an end game. Remember, the kidnapper never got his money and he never got caught. He could try again.”
Like Edith, Eva was small and probably easy to overpower. Maybe I was overthinking things but kidnapping a staff member wasn’t out of the question for someone brazen enough to breach the security of the mansion and kill Stephen. Maybe Stephen had discovered the kidnapper coming to the mansion to attempt another abduction. Or perhaps I was barking up the wrong tree entirely. There were still dozens and dozens of unknowns. Which was why I wanted Eva safe—and far away from the Durants.
“I don’t want to carry a gun around,” Eva said sullenly. Before I was able to protest, however, she sighed and added, “but if it will make you stop trying to make me quit, then I will.”
Eva was frowning, but I already felt better.
“At least now I’ll be able to start trying to connect the two deaths,” I told her. “Now that we got the lab results that indicate that Stephen and Edith were probably killed at around the same time—and Richard has finally told us why Edith died, I’ll be able to make a lot more headway. Hopefully Murray and Flint will crack this wide open in a couple of days.”
Although I hated the idea that Eva was going to continue living in the mansion, I also knew that we were now closer than ever to solving the murders. Eva probably didn’t realize it, but Richard’s admission had also explained to me why he’d been so cagey about Edith’s death from the beginning.
“Why do you think the kidnapper killed Edith?” I asked Eva.
She shrugged.
“Maybe she was struggling or making noise? Believe it or not, smothering someone who is physically weak isn’t nearly as hard as people think it is. Our windpipes as fragile. Especially if Edith were tied up, she may not have had the strength or ability to alert her attacker that she was in distress.”
“You think her death was an accident?”
“Yes. Probably.”
I nodded. That made sense to me. Killing the hostage obviously didn’t make for a very good kidnapping plot.
“What I want to know is why Richard didn’t tell you all of this sooner,” Eva said. “He could have saved you, Murray, and Flint a lot of wasted time.”
“It was like I suspected: Richard wanted to solve his sister’s kidnapping-turned-murder himself, presumably so he could get his own brand of justice against her killer. Getting me involved puts an end to that plan, especially since he chose to tell you, too. He knows we would never in a million years go along with any plan that ended in Richard committing a murder.”
I watched her face as she thought about it. “I figured it was because he wanted us to stop suspecting him.”
“I’m sure there was an element of that as well.” I couldn’t help my smile. I was honestly very glad Richard was not behind his sister’s murder, even though I’d been fairly certain that he hadn’t been from the beginning.
We’d arrived at Eva’s door. She looked up at me after fishing for her keys in her handbag.
“Now what?”
“What do you mean?”
“Now what happens? Are you going to go to the police and tell them about Edith’s kidnapping?”
“No. That would cause more problems than it solved at this point. I’m going to figure out what happened to Stephen. We have so much more to go off now.”
“You sound a lot more optimistic.”
“I am.”
Eva sighed and shook her head. “That’s good I guess. I really just wish this were all over. I’m looking forward to the day when I can just concentrate on regular stuff again. Spending time with you. Doing my job. Meeting your mom. No more murders.”
I grinned at her. “I honestly don’t know how you’re keeping all of this together, Eva. You work the most stressful job imaginable. I thought I had the most stressful job until I met you. And you’re somehow able to live in what is basically a warzone while you do it. I’ve never met anyone like you. You’re really very impressive.”
She turned pink again while I was talking and looked away.
“I mean it, Eva,” I told her earnestly. “I think you’re amazing.”
Eva wasn’t looking at me. I put a finger under her chin to tilt her eyes up to mine. They shined in the dim light of the hallway, reflecting and bouncing the light around their blue depths. She honestly had no idea how incredible she was.
“I think you’re amazing, too,” she said after a second. She leaned up to kiss me goodnight.
I was thinking about changing my plans and trying to get her to let me stay the night when my phone buzzed and pulled me back down to earth. I needed to meet with Murray and Flint ASAP.
“I gotta’ go. Good night, Eva. Call me if you need anything. And remember to carry that gun, ok?” I told her as I turned to go. She rolled her eyes but nodded solemnly.
“I won’t forget.”
32
Eva
“I’m going to miss you,” I told Meredith, staring at her luggage instead of her face. “I wish you weren’t leaving.”
Meredith said she just couldn’t work here anymore after we found Stephen’s body. I could hardly blame her, or Rita, who’d left the week before. She was going back to California to get away, and although she didn’t admit it, Thomas and I knew her ex also played a factor in her decision to go. The mansion had never been heavily populated, but it was beginning to feel abandoned.
Meredith hugged me, and it occurred to me that in the month I’d been at the Durant mansion, I’d made more friends than I ever had during my time working in the Atlanta Hospital system. And now another one of them was leaving. With Meredith and Rita gone, and with Isaac leaving in a few weeks, I was losing friends at an alarming rate.
“Are you sure you won’t reconsider?” Thomas asked after receiving his own goodbye embrace. Meredith shook her head.
“It’s time for me to go. Besides, I miss California. It’s too damn cold here.” She shivered and gestured to the inch of freshly fallen snow around us. “I don’t want to endure another winter here.”
“I hear that,” Paul said from the front seat of the SUV he was taking Meredith to the airport in. He rubbed his gloved hands together and winced. “We’re all going to freeze, and Meredith’s going to miss her flight if we don’t leave right now.”
Thomas and I helped load Meredith’s stuff, and then Meredith, into the SUV. We waved until the SUV was out of sight.
“Well that sucks,” Thomas said. I chuckled weakly at his adroit observation.
“You have a gift for understatement.”
“Just one of my many natural blessings, another of which is knowing how to cheer us up.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, that’s right. In fact, I have a bottle of it in my room.”
Thirty minutes later and we were shooting tequila on Thomas’ couch. He’d turned on reruns of Gilmore Girls and I was absolutely feeling better.
“You know, I really thought that Isaac would quit before Meredith did,” I told Thomas.
He nodded. “Me too. He still doesn’t look like he’s gotten over seeing the body.”
&
nbsp; Isaac had never been a super chatty individual, but these days it was hard to get two words out of him. He was definitely on edge, too. I felt like every time I saw him, he was looking over his shoulder with a nervous expression on his face. He’d turned in his two weeks’ notice just a few days ago. The stress had finally gotten to him. Then again, I was the one secretly carrying around a revolver.
“It was pretty awful,” I admitted. I hoped I would never see (or smell) anything like that again.
“It’s funny,” Thomas said after a moment. “I’ve been thinking about those last few weeks with Stephen. I guess all those interviews with those detectives made me remember. Stephen was actually in a really good mood that entire month, despite the fact that Alexander was just as difficult as ever. He certainly didn’t seem like he was getting ready to quit. I guess I should have realized that his disappearance was off.”
Now that all the forensic tests had come back from the lab, we’d received the confirmation that Stephen had—unsurprisingly—died right about the time when he was purported to have left his note and quit.
“I don’t know what to make of any of it,” I admitted to Thomas. “If anything, the only thing I’ve learned is that I’m not cut out to be a detective.”
“I’m with you. What does Charlie think happened?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “He’s supposed to be meeting with the two detectives today, so maybe I’ll know something soon.”
“How are you two doing otherwise?”
I felt myself grinning like an idiot in love. “We’re doing good.”
“Ugh you two are just too precious. It makes me jealous.”
“Waterloo doesn’t exactly have much of a gay scene, huh?”
“I thought I was the one with gift for understatement. No. Philly isn’t so bad but living in this stuffy-ass suburb has put a serious crimp in my style. I can’t wait to move.”
Thomas had recently been accepted to UCLA’s registered nurse continuation program, which would allow him to upgrade his nurse assistant credential.
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