by Tim Kizer
“Why did Vera abduct my daughter thirteen years ago?”
“I didn’t know she abducted your daughter.”
“Did you help her abduct my daughter?”
“I didn’t know she abducted your daughter, Alice.”
Alice looked at her watch. “Do you want to die, Andrew?”
“Alice, I asked Vera not to abduct your daughter. I asked her to leave you alone.”
“Who are those two women who helped her?”
“They left the country a long time ago.”
“What are their names?”
“I don’t know. Please give me the antidote, Alice.”
“Did Vera kill my mom?”
“I don’t know.”
Alice said to David, “Honey, can you leave us alone for a few minutes?”
When David left the room, she asked Walsh in a low voice, “Did you know Vera is a spy?”
Walsh shook his head. “No. What makes you think she’s a spy?”
“Are you a spy, too? Who do you work for? Russia?”
Walsh frowned. “I’m not a spy.”
“I could report you and Vera to the FBI, you know.”
“If you do that, you’ll go to prison, too, for at least twenty years. Vera explained that to you, didn’t she?”
“Where does Vera live?”
“I know why you want to meet Vera. You want to kill her, don’t you?”
“No. I just want to talk to her.”
“You think we’re going to kill you, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“We’re not going to kill you, Alice. Vera, Natalie, and I are moving to Australia.”
“Why?”
“Our employer transferred us there. You have nothing to worry about, Alice. The Chinese don’t like to kill. They like to keep things low-key and clean.”
“Do you work for China?”
“Yes.”
“How long have you been a spy?”
“Thirty-five years. Now please give me the antidote.”
“Who killed the girl everyone thinks is Melissa?”
“Kevin.”
“Kevin Munroe?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his real name?”
“Joseph Mostel.”
“What’s Vera’s address?”
“You don’t have to kill her, Alice. She’s leaving for Sidney tomorrow.”
“I just want to talk to her.”
“I’ll give you her number. You can talk to her on the phone.”
“Okay. What’s her number?”
“It’s under Brian Delaney.”
Alice raised the flip phone. “Here?”
“Yes.”
Alice scrolled through the flip phone’s contacts, found Brian Delaney, and then said, “Now tell me Vera’s address.”
“You don’t need to meet her, Alice. You can talk to her on the phone.”
“I’m not going to kill her. She gave me my daughter back, why would I kill her? I want to meet Vera because she’s my sister.”
Walsh sighed. “Okay. Her address is four one eight one Pittsfield Way, San Jose.”
Alice typed the address into Google Maps on Walsh’s phone and saw that it was real. Vera’s house was about six miles from the Walshes’.
“Give me the antidote, Alice.”
Alice took out the vial and the syringe and said, “You’re coming with us.”
“Why?”
She set her pistol on the coffee table. “Because I don’t trust you. I’ll let you go after I meet Vera.”
Alice opened the vial, unwrapped the syringe, removed the cover from the needle, and filled the syringe with the contents of the vial. Then she pulled up the left sleeve of Walsh’s T-shirt, stabbed the needle into his upper arm and depressed the plunger.
“How about I ask Vera to come here?” Walsh said.
Alice put the syringe, its wrapper, and the needle cover in her bag.
That was a good idea.
Let him ask Mostel to come here, too.
“Okay.” Alice capped the vial, placed it in her bag, and then picked up her gun and Walsh’s flip phone.
When she stood up, Joseph Mostel appeared in the doorway and said, “Alice, drop your gun.”
The pistol in his hand was pointed at Alice.
Chapter 52
1
Where’s David? Did Mostel kill him?
If I drop the gun, I’ll be as good as dead.
“Drop it now!” Mostel said. His pistol had a silencer attached to the barrel.
“Her boyfriend is here, he’s got a gun.” Walsh stood up. “Shoot her now!”
Mostel nodded slightly.
Two shots rang out, and Mostel fell to the floor.
Walsh ran toward the doorway.
He’s trying to escape.
Alice raised her gun and shot at Walsh. The bullet struck him in the back. He collapsed, face down.
David rushed into the room, grabbed Mostel’s pistol, and said to Alice, “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I think Walsh is dead.”
“We’ve got to get out of here.” David stuck Mostel’s pistol in his belt, picked up Alice’s mug, and poured the remaining coffee on the floor.
What does he need the mug for?
Alice shoved Walsh’s phones in her bag. “Let’s go.”
The mug has my fingerprints on it.
“Put on your sunglasses,” David said as he put on his sunglasses.
When David opened the front door, Alice saw Vera coming up the Walshes’ walkway.
“It’s Vera, get her.” Alice ran out of the house, her gun pointed at Vera. “Don’t move!”
Vera reached into her bag.
She has a gun in her bag.
“Don’t move or I’ll shoot you!” Alice shouted, and snatched the bag from Vera.
Someone must have already called the police.
“Hurry up.” David fished out the car keys and pressed the unlock button on the fob. Their car beeped.
Alice waved her gun toward their Chrysler and said to Vera, “Go.”
As they went to the car, Vera said, “What do you want with me? I gave you Melissa back.”
David opened the rear door, and Vera and Alice got in.
“Did you kill my dad?” Vera asked.
David climbed behind the wheel, started the engine, and pulled away from the curb. He looked calm and confident, as though he’d driven a getaway car many times before. Alice set Vera’s bag on the floor and took out a cable tie.
“Put your hands behind your back,” she ordered Vera.
“Alice, I gave you Melissa back,” Vera said. “What do you want with me?”
“I just want to talk to you.” Alice wiped the cable tie with her T-shirt. “Put your hands behind your back.”
Alice heard a siren. She glanced out the windshield and saw a police car coming toward them, its lights flashing.
Vera put her hands behind her back. Three police cruisers shot past them as Alice bound her sister’s hands.
“Alice, who was that guy?” David asked.
“He was Vera’s partner.”
“Was he a bad guy?”
“Yes, he was.”
“Did you kill Kevin?” Vera asked.
Alice removed the batteries from Walsh’s phones and said, “Yes.”
Walsh might have survived. And Munroe might have survived, too.
“Did you kill my dad?”
“No.”
“Let me go, Alice.”
“Why did you abduct my daughter thirteen years ago?”
David said, “Alice, where do you want to go?”
“Santa Cruz.”
“Our parents gave me away and kept you,” Vera said. “I was really hurt by that, and I decided to make you suffer.”
“Where did you get the dead baby you showed me in the hospital thirteen years ago?”
“We bought it from a guy at the morgue.”
“Where’s my
mom? Is she dead?”
“You mean our mom? I don’t know where she is.”
“You kidnapped and killed her.”
Vera shook her head. “No, I didn’t.”
“You were mad at her for giving you up for adoption.”
Vera stared at Alice for a long moment. “The Walshes didn’t adopt me because they wanted a child. They adopted me because they wanted to look like an average family. I was just a piece of furniture to them. I was disposable.”
“That didn’t give you the right to kill our mother.”
“I didn’t kill Rebecca.”
“Did Mostel kill her?”
“No. I have nothing to do with Rebecca’s disappearance. Please let me go.”
“What about the girl you killed on June twenty-seventh? Why didn’t you let her go?”
“I’m sorry Joe killed that girl, and I’m sorry I abducted your daughter. I’m not a monster, Alice. I gave you Melissa back, didn’t I?”
“Are you sorry you killed Mom?”
“Do you want to kill me? I’m your sister, Alice.”
“Rebecca was your mother.”
“Joe killed Rebecca.”
“But it was you who told him to kill her.”
“Rebecca was a bad person. She gave her child away. She was selfish.”
“She didn’t deserve to be killed, you fucking bitch! She was an amazing woman.”
“I made a mistake. I’m very sorry. Please forgive me, Alice. Turn me in to the police, I’ll confess to kidnapping Rebecca.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?”
Vera deserved to die. She had ordered Mostel to kill Rebecca and that poor girl. She was as guilty of those murders as Mostel.
Alice looked into Vera’s bag and saw a gun and two cellphones. The gun was fitted with a silencer. She removed the batteries from Vera’s phones and said, “What did you do with Mom’s body?”
“We buried it.”
“Where?”
“A few miles from Palmdale.”
“How did Joe kill her?”
“He shot her.”
“Did you torture her?”
“No.”
“Did you hurt her?”
“No, we didn’t.”
She’s lying.
“Alice, please let me go. You’re not a killer. You’re a good person. Don’t be like Joe.”
“I loved Mom more than anything. And you took her away from me.”
Alice looked around. Thick woods lined both sides of the road.
“David, get off the highway,” she said.
“Okay.”
“Alice, I gave you your daughter back, and this is how you repay me?” Vera said.
“You stole her from me, remember?”
David slowed down, turned onto a narrow road, and stopped about ten seconds later.
“Where’s your driver’s license?” Alice asked Vera.
“My wallet.”
“Where’s your wallet?”
“My pocket.”
Alice pulled Vera’s wallet from her jeans pocket and looked at the driver’s license. Vera’s driver’s license was in the name of Katherine Evans.
The police would find Vera’s driver’s license, so they wouldn’t have to run her DNA through their database.
Alice stuffed the wallet back into Vera’s pocket.
“I’ll turn the car around,” David said, and started a three-point turn.
“Please don’t kill me, Alice,” Vera implored, her eyes shining with tears.
Alice thought of the terror her mother must have felt just before Mostel murdered her, and a lump rose in her throat.
“Alice, are you sure about this?” David said.
“If I let her go, she’ll have you, Melissa, and me killed.”
“No, I won’t!” Vera said. “I won’t! I’m leaving for Australia tomorrow, and I’m not coming back.”
Alice took a small serrated knife from the duffel bag.
“I’m leaving for Australia, Alice. You don’t have to kill me!”
Alice got out of the car and opened the door on Vera’s side. “Get out.”
“David, please ask her not to kill me.”
“I loved Rebecca, too, you know,” David replied.
Vera shot Alice a pleading look and climbed out of the Chrysler. “Please don’t kill me, Alice. Please!”
Alice closed the door, stepped behind Vera, and cut the cable tie. Suddenly Vera wheeled around, grabbed Alice’s right hand, and tried to wrest the Glock away. Alice gripped the pistol as hard as she could.
Vera’s hands were surprisingly strong.
Alice was about to punch her sister in the face with her left hand when Vera kicked her in the shin. Alice bent over with pain, her grip on the Glock loosened, and Vera yanked the gun away.
David fired his pistol twice. One bullet hit Vera in the neck and the other in the head. The Glock fell out of Vera’s hand, and she crumpled to the ground.
“Get in the car,” David said.
Alice checked her hands and arms. No blood. There was no blood on the front of her T-shirt, either. She picked up the Glock and got in the car.
“Thank you for saving my life, twice,” she said.
“No problem.”
“Let’s go home.”
“Were you going to let her go?”
“No.”
“Is Joe the guy I killed in Walsh’s house?”
“Yes, he is.”
2
They threw all four guns and Andrew Walsh’s and Vera’s phones in Anderson Lake. When they got back on Highway 101, David asked, “What kind of poison did you put in Walsh’s coffee?”
“A roach spray.”
“A roach spray?”
“Yeah.”
“What was in the other vial?”
“Saline solution.”
It was three in the morning when they arrived in Pasadena. They washed and thoroughly vacuumed the Chrysler at a self-service car wash and then went to the Best Western in Glendale.
Walter decided to stay at the hotel. When David and Melissa left the room, Alice said to her father, “I lost your gun. I hope you’re not mad.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“If the police ask you where your gun is, tell them you lost it.”
“Okay. Got it. Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine.” She kissed Walter on the cheek.
Chapter 53
1
What if she doesn’t want to stay with me?
Her stomach fluttering with nerves, Alice filled Melissa’s glass with orange juice and said, “Honey, I need to tell you something.”
“What is it?” Melissa took a bite of her toast.
“You see… I am your biological mother.”
“You’re my mother?” Melissa said with surprise.
“Yes.” Alice put an arm around the girl. “I love you so much, Melissa.”
“Why did Vera tell me she was my mother?”
“Because I asked her.”
“So she didn’t go to Germany?”
“Yes, she did, and she’s not coming back.”
Melissa slipped an arm around Alice’s waist.
“I think we’re going to get along fine,” Alice said. “What do you think?”
“I think so, too.”
“By the way, the Sinaloa cartel is no longer after you. You don’t have to stay inside anymore.”
“Cool. Can you buy me a phone that can go on the Internet?”
“Sure.”
2
Alice showed Melissa her house and when they returned to David’s apartment, she took a pregnancy test. The results were positive. Alice told David he was going to be a dad, and he grabbed her and planted a kiss on her lips.
The next morning, Alice googled Andrew Walsh’s name and found a news article about his and Joseph Mostel’s murders.
3
The DNA test of the blood on the victim’s clothes showe
d that Lindsey Goodrich was the girl Joseph Mostel had killed on June 27.
In September, Alice filed a lawsuit to annul Melissa’s adoption. The judge grunted the annulment, and the Keeners told Alice they had no problem with that. She agreed to allow the Keeners to keep in touch with Melissa.
THE END
Other titles by Tim Kizer
An Evil Mind
Days of Vengeance
The Vanished
Mania
Spellbound
The Mindbender
THE VANISHED
Description
On May 6, five-year-old Annie Miller goes missing in a park. On May 7, her father, David Miller, fails a lie detector test. On May 9, during a hypnosis session, David confesses to murdering his daughter and gives the police the location of the knife he used to kill her. The knife has traces of Annie's blood and David's fingerprints all over it.
Two weeks later, a man named Ben calls David and tells him Annie's alive. Ben is willing to let the girl go, but first David has to do something for him—something that would land David in prison for the rest of his life.
Chapter 1
1
“Annie!” David Miller took off his sunglasses and looked up and down the drive aisle.
He was in a great mood, but that was about to change. Today was the day he would report his daughter missing. And in seventy-two hours he would confess to killing her.
“Annie!”
Annie wasn’t in the second aisle, either.
He crossed the parking lot and stepped onto the grass, his eyes sweeping the park. “Annie! Annie!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
His daughter was nowhere in sight. A stab of fear pierced him.
Where was she?
Perhaps she had wandered off after a stray cat or a butterfly or a squirrel.
In the back of his mind, a voice whispered: Annie’s been kidnapped, and you’ll never see her again.
David supposed it was normal. He was not in a panic. He was sure most, if not all, parents had thoughts like these when they lost sight of their young children in a public place.
Absorbed in thought, he walked over to the path running parallel to the parking lot.
How long had Annie been out of his sight before he got out of the car?
She had stepped out of the car when he switched off the engine. After he pulled the key from the ignition, he checked his cellphone for messages. Then he opened the door, dropped the phone on the floor, picked it up, and got out of the car.