by M. Z. Kelly
“And then your sister, Elizabeth, was killed a year later.”
She nodded, not meeting Olivia’s eyes. “There’s been a lot of tragedy in my life. I’m sure you know her murder was never solved either.”
“Who do you think murdered them?” Darby asked, displaying his usual bluntness.
“I have no idea.” Robinson looked at Olivia. “Is this about the deaths of my father and sister?”
“No. We’re just following up because your father was killed in the house where our first homicide occurred. The second was at a residence called Highpoint, a house in the Hollywood Hills.”
Robinson took a moment, then said, “I wish I could help you, but I...” Her phone beeped and she took a moment to look at the screen. “I’m afraid I’m needed on the floor.” She met Olivia’s eyes. “Is there anything more?”
“Your mother, we need to follow up with her. We understand she’s living in Newport Beach?”
Robinson stood. “If you say so. We’re not close. I haven’t seen her in years.”
After Robinson was gone, we stayed in the conference room for a few minutes. After discussing what little the physician had told us, Darby gave us his thoughts. “Like I said, this is a waste of time.” He looked at Woody, as if to blame him. “The prior killings have nothing to do with our case.”
Woody shrugged. “Just covering all the bases.” He looked at Olivia. “You still want us to follow up with Robinson’s mother?”
“Let’s wait and see if we get a call back from the aunt and uncle. Depending on what they say, we can make a decision from there.”
As Olivia and I left the hospital and walked to our car, I told her something that had been on my mind about the Peters case. “Do you think it’s possible that Mel found out about Gina Benson’s death after Marilyn became involved with Jackson Ellis? It wouldn’t be unusual for a detective to want to check out someone her sister was involved with.”
We stopped at the car, and Olivia brushed her ebony hair out of her eyes. “Maybe. I still think there’s a lot that was going on with Mel and Marilyn that we have yet to uncover.”
“Are you beginning to doubt Ellis’s involvement?”
She smiled. “Ask me again after we pull Lazarus out of whatever hole he’s hiding in.”
FORTY-FOUR
“How many years has it been now?” Dr. Tanner asked Haley.
They were in the psychiatrist’s home office, overlooking her sprawling back yard. Haley had decided to come here after the police left and she completed her shift at the hospital. She thought it might help her process events and decide what to do next.
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to,” Haley said.
“Since...since your sister died. That’s when you originally began seeing me.”
“Oh.” Her head slumped down. “I’m not sure. I’ve lost track.”
“What’s the matter?”
Haley took a breath, lifted her head. “I’m trying to decide something and I thought coming here might help.”
“Tell me what’s on your mind.”
Haley’s gaze drifted to the shelves behind the psychiatrist. She didn’t see the photograph of the woman the psychiatrist had married. “Your...your wife? Her picture is gone.”
Dr. Tanner took a breath and released it slowly. “I don’t usually discuss my personal life, but you and I have known one another for years. We separated a few days ago.”
Haley was overjoyed, but remained expressionless. “I’m sorry. What happened?”
“People grow apart and change. It’s part of life.”
“She cheated on you, didn’t she?”
Tanner blinked several times. “I’m not willing to discuss the details. Let’s get back to why you’re here. You left my office abruptly the other day. Now, you said you’re trying to decide something. Tell me what’s going on.”
Haley rose and walked over to the window, taking in the pond full of koi, the sprawling oaks in the yard.
“Haley, please. Let’s talk.”
She ignored the psychiatrist, her mind reeling with the decision she was here to make. She finally turned back to Tanner. “I have something to tell you.”
“I’m listening.”
“It’s about Lizzy. I’ve been coming here for years, talking about her death, how it’s affected my life.”
“Yes. I know that it’s been difficult. You’ve made some excellent progress, but you still need to accept...”
Haley took a step closer to the shrink, interrupting her. “I’ve been lying to you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“About Lizzy. She’s alive, but she’s...” Haley slumped down in her chair.
Dr. Tanner had a puzzled expression. “But she’s what? I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me.”
Haley took a seat and twisted her fingers together in her lap before finding Dr. Tanner’s eyes again. “She talks to me.”
The psychiatrist nodded, but her expression gave nothing up. “Tell me about that.”
“My sister...she’s trapped.”
“Trapped?”
“She’s still...” Haley paused, a thin smile surfacing. “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Of course not. Tell me about it.”
Haley took a long time before continuing. When she spoke again, the decision she’d been wrestling with had been made. She saw no reason not to tell Dr. Tanner everything. “Lizzy’s still twelve, the same age as I was when...when everything happened.”
Dr. Tanner nodded. “When she talks to you, you hear her voice as it was when she was a girl?”
“Yes, but...she doesn’t just talk to me. I see her.”
The psychiatrist studied her for a long moment. Haley realized that Dr. Tanner thought she was insane.
“How do you...see her?” Dr. Tanner asked.
“In the mirror. Like I told you, she’s trapped.”
“I see.”
“There’s something else.” Tanner nodded, waited. “Lizzy doesn’t understand where she is. She’s waiting for me to set her free.”
The psychiatrist’s features were full of concern. “How are you going to do that?”
“I have to avenge her death, by killing the man who took her life. Then she’ll be set free.”
Tanner leaned forward in her chair. “I need you to listen to what I say very carefully, Haley, and answer me truthfully. Are you thinking about hurting someone?”
Haley smiled and shook her head. “No.”
The psychiatrist exhaled. “That’s a relief.”
“The men I’ve killed aren’t hurting anymore. They’re dead.”
The psychiatrist moved her chair back. “Are you trying to tell me that you’ve killed someone?”
“Two men. I thought they were responsible for what happened to Lizzy, but I was wrong. That’s why I have to kill someone else, the one who trapped Lizzy. Then she’ll be completely transformed.”
“Transformed? What are you talking about?”
“She’ll be freed from her prison and allowed to die.” Haley shook her head and sighed. “She doesn’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Lizzy doesn’t understand that she’s dead. When I kill the man who murdered her, then she will understand and be set free. It’s the only way she can get to heaven.”
Dr. Tanner was quiet for a long moment. Her voice was changed when she finally spoke, taking on a degree of apprehension that Haley had never heard before. “I think our session is complete for today. I’ll be in touch about getting together again.” She stood.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to be a hybrid?”
“I’m sorry?”
Haley smiled. “I am like a creature of mythology that I once read about. I live between the light and the darkness. I will also be forever trapped in the shadows of life until I set Lizzy free.”
“I think we’re done here.”
Haley remained seated. “I�
��ve made my decision.”
The psychiatrist’s voice pitched higher, her wariness now obvious. “About what?”
Haley removed the scalpel from her purse and rose. “I was unsure about what to do when I came here today. Now, all my doubts have been vanquished. I’m going to kill you.”
FORTY-FIVE
We spent the rest of our day at Hollywood Station, making plans to leave for Camp Tribute in the morning. I was exhausted as I got home and Bernie and I were met at our front door by Otto.
“Madams Bump and Simpson are getting the car from the carriage house,” Otto said. “They said they will meet you on the street momentarily.”
“Meet me? For what?”
“I was not made privy to all the details, but I believe there is some kind of planning event scheduled for this evening.”
I suddenly remembered that Nana was having Boris and Jessica’s engagement party planning session at her new house tonight. I groaned and went back outside, where I found my friends in the driveway, in Mo’s Caddie.
“I’m too exhausted to go,” I said, bending down to Natalie’s open passenger window.
“You can’t bail on this,” Natalie said, getting out and opening the rear passenger door. “Nana’s expectin’ you to make plans to handle Boris’s crazy mother at the party.”
“But I’m...”
Mo cut off my words. “Better just give it up, Kate. Me and baby sis promise to get you home early.”
After another round of protests, I became resigned to my fate. I went with them after feeding Bernie and asking Otto to keep an eye on him.
As we drove, Mo asked me about the Peters case. I filled her in and said, “We think Ellis, or Lazarus, and his followers could be staying at an abandoned mining camp in the mountains. We’re going to check it out tomorrow.”
She nodded her wig-adorned head and regarded me in the rearview mirror. “I’d be careful if I was you. I heard the Society has got themselves a shitload of guns.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“What ‘bout the prossie-slasher?” Natalie asked, using her own nickname for our Wonderland case. “You guys gettin’ anywhere on findin’ the girl?”
“We talked to a doctor who lived in the Wonderland house as a kid. Her father and sister were murdered years ago, but I’m not sure their homicides have anything to do with our case.”
“Word on the streets is the girl’s not a pro,” Mo said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“She’s not a regular on any of the circuits or the Internet. Your killer goes online, finds a hook-up, then disappears and covers her tracks. She’s pretty slippery.”
“That makes her a nutter with a side of butter,” Natalie said, laughing at her rhyme.
I sighed. “I think you could be right.”
We continued to chat about my cases as we made our way up into the Hollywood Hills to Nana’s new house. The residence had a view, but it was smaller than I expected. It was modern and boxy, with lots of glass.
As Mo rang the bell, she said, “I heard Nana’s doin’ some remodeling, so prepare yourself.”
Howie answered the door and led us through a living room that had been gutted down to the studs. In a voice that rose to a lilting pitch, probably imitating a celebrity I wasn’t familiar with, he explained the mess. “Nana’s going nuclear on the remodel. Everything’s going...goooing...gone!”
Nana appeared from a doorway, wearing a yoga outfit. She took a page out of Howie’s book, mimicking someone from one of those home improvement TV shows. “Do you have the guts to take on a fixer upper?”
Her fixer upper was probably in the ten million dollar neighborhood, with a view of Hollywood from the rear windows to die for.
After a brief tour, and after Howie disappeared, probably to try on another personality, Nana got down to business. “I was planning on us doing a yoga session, but my instructor’s sick. I ended up doing the downward dog with Howie before you got here.”
Mo shook her head and made a retching sound. “We don’t wanna hear ‘bout you and Howie doin’ anything doggy style.”
Natalie regarded Nana for a moment. “What happened to your face and skin? It looks kinda saggy.”
Nana sighed and rubbed her face, which I now saw was jowly and wrinkled. “I’ve got to go back to Dr. Theodore for a tune-up. He said this might happen with a woman my age.” She looked at me. “Tell me the truth, do I still look like I’m forty, instead of eighty-something?”
I was searching for something positive to say when Natalie, demonstrating her lack of tact, blurted out, “You look all cocked-up, like a bloated, lumpy catfish. You better get to the doctor soon.”
Mo agreed with her. “Maybe they can just suck out the fat and re-plaster your face. I heard they got a suction machine like one of them Dyson vacuum cleaners.”
Nana sighed. “I’ll make sure I have my tune-up before the engagement party. The affair needs to be something that Hollywood will be talking about for decades to come. It’s got to be bigger, better, and badder than anything the city has ever seen.”
“With Boris’s relatives being there, it’s a cinch to be badder,” Mo said.
“I just hope them ghouls don’t start a riot,” Natalie said. “I still got a scar on me ankle from one of them tryin’ to bite me.”
“That’s where you come in,” Nana said, eyeballing me. “Like I told you before, you’re on Wilhelmina watch. I want Boris’s mother under constant surveillance.”
“Easier said than done,” I said. “Wilhelmina’s got a mind of her own.”
“Maybe we should drug her,” Natalie suggested.
“Or have Kate handcuff her to a post somewhere,” Mo said.
“Drugging and disabling her would do the trick,” Nana agreed.
“What you’re suggesting is illegal,” I told them all. “I won’t be a part of it.”
Nana released another long breath. “Okay, then you can just babysit her.” Her gray eyes lit up. “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you become friends with her before the party, maybe ask her out to lunch? That way you can hang with her the whole time and keep an eye on her, and she won’t suspect a thing.”
“I don’t think I’m going to become Wilhelmina’s best friend,” I said, “but I do think we need to come up with a theme for the engagement party.”
“Monsters ‘n’ mayhem?” Mo asked.
“How ‘bout Zombie’s on Parade?” Natalie suggested.
“They both sound promising,” Nana said.
“I have a different idea,” I said, after they went on for a couple minutes about ghouls and vampires. “I was thinking something along the lines of a royal affair—maybe like something they would have at Buckingham Palace.”
“We could all dress up like we’re members of the royal family,” Nana said, warming to the idea.
“I’ll go as Prince Harry,” Howie said, popping into the room and using an English accent. He said to Nana, “Perhaps you could go as that actress he’s dating.”
“I want to be Princess Kate,” Natalie said before Nana could respond. “I always wanted to wear one of them ridiculous fascinators on me head.”
“I don’t know ‘bout this,” Mo said. “We don’t got us the money for any of them expensive outfits.”
“I’m footing the bill for everything,” Nana said. She looked at Natalie. “I think a royal theme for the party is what you Brits would call the dog’s balls.”
“You mean bollocks,” Natalie said. “Jessica already thinks she’s the bee’s knees, so it’s a bloody good idea.”
They all went on for the next half hour, making plans to go as members of the royal family. Nana then looked at me and said, “Maybe you could go as the virgin queen.”
“Very funny,” I said.
“Make sure you bring that Ross fellow along. I want to have a few words with him. Hey, maybe he can go as Prince Phillip. I heard that guy hasn’t got anything out of the Queen in years.”
> They went on for a couple minutes, telling me that my vagina was colder than a British winter and Natalie speculating that Ross’s testicles were bluer than an iceberg in the Arctic Ocean.
“I think I’ve heard enough,” I finally said. I told Nana, “It’s been a long day. Let us know when you work out the details for the party.”
Nana’s gray eyes brightened. “Maybe I’ll have Jessica and Boris arrive in a carriage, but instead of horses, I’ll have it pulled by werewolves.”
Before we left, I had a feeling that the party I’d proposed would soon morph into something that would look like monsters had invaded Buckingham Palace. I smiled as we drove away from Nana’s house, thinking it was exactly what I had in mind as a payback for Jessica Barlow.
FORTY-SIX
I had just gotten to bed and was sound asleep when my phone rang. I groaned and fumbled for the lamp switch on my nightstand.
“Hellloo,” I said, trying to clear my throat and get my bearings.
“Sorry, I know it’s bad timing, but duty calls,” Leo said.
Bernie was awake now and came over to the side of my bed. “What gives?”
“We caught another case; a shrink was murdered on the west side. Bronson told Olivia it’s ours. I’ll text you the address.”
I ended the call and jumped in the shower. Cleo was still working on the plumbing, but I’d learned if I took a sixty second cold shower, I could avoid the gunk in the pipes.
Ten minutes later, Siri was giving me directions to the psychiatrist’s office. The Westside encompassed a wide area, running from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica, but also included Pacific Palisades and Topanga Canyon. As it turned out, Dr. Beverly Tanner, our victim, lived on the outskirts of the Palisades, where I met up with Leo on the street. I learned that the psychiatrist had a home office, where she saw her clients.
“Tanner’s mother was supposed to have dinner with her at seven tonight,” Leo said. “She came by, rang the bell, and left when no one answered. Later, when her daughter didn’t return her calls, she got worried and came back here and used a key to get inside. That’s when she found the body.”