“But you’re not a man,” Ian said, sounding terrified.
“No,” snapped Claudia, “I’m a victim of fate.”
I nodded, trying to look like I felt sorry for her. What was it with people who always pretended to be a victim? She was wealthy, successful, and well-respected as a lawyer. So what if her life wasn’t perfect? Nobody’s life was perfect. Didn’t mean they had to go around killing people.
“It’s so tough,” I murmured, trying to sound like I empathized with her.
“It is,” Claudia said. She glanced from Ian to me and stood up. Her brows knit, and her eyes narrowed. “And now, I have to get rid of you.”
My heart jumped into my throat, and my breath was short and jagged.
I had to think fast. I needed some way to distract Claudia. Perhaps I could make a wild dash for her gun and overpower her, but if I moved toward her, she’d shoot me. Perhaps I could trick her somehow, or convince her that Ian and I would keep her secret. But Claudia seemed too smart for trickery or false promises.
“You don’t need to get rid of us,” I heard myself saying. “I’m sure we could come to some understanding.”
“I know your type,” said Claudia, her voice like steel. “You think you’re oh-so-good and better than the rest of us. Well, you’re not, and you’re not getting me in trouble. I’ve gotten away with one murder, and I know that getting rid of you two will be easy.”
Just then, there was a loud knock at Claudia’s door.
Claudia stiffened and glared at us. “Don’t make a noise,” she hissed. “Whoever it is will go away.”
The knocking continued for a few long minutes, and then finally, there was silence. A few seconds later, Ian’s phone began to ring.
“I’d better answer that,” Ian said quickly. “It’s probably my mother, and she’ll get all worried if I don’t answer.”
“I’m not stupid,” Claudia snapped. “You’re not answering any phone calls.”
We waited until Ian’s cell phone stopped ringing, and then Claudia turned to me. She opened her mouth to say something, when my phone began to ring.
I knew what her answer would be, so I didn’t bother to ask Claudia if I could answer. Instead, I used the time that my phone was ringing to wonder if I should rush over and try to overpower her. But I was sitting down, and if I got up suddenly, Claudia would get suspicious.
When my phone stopped ringing, the knocking at the door started again.
And then, I heard Nanna’s voice saying, “Open up! I know you guys are in there.”
27
My heart plunged to my knees. What was Nanna doing here? Gavin had promised that he and Nanna would wait in the car, a fact that I had completely forgotten about.
“I saw your car parked out there,” Nanna’s voice continued after a pause. “Gavin says he has to rush off, so I need to wait inside with you two.”
I kicked myself for ever trusting Gavin.
Of course he would be the flakiest, most unreliable person in the world. And now, Nanna would have to get mixed up in all this.
A wave of fear and anger washed over me. I closed my eyes, wishing this were all just a terrible dream.
There was silence for a few seconds, and I was hopeful that perhaps Nanna and Gavin had walked away. I opened my eyes weakly and saw that Claudia was still pointing the gun at me. She looked angrier than ever and was glaring at me as though the knocking on her door was all my fault. Which, in a way, it was.
“Tiffany,” Nanna’s voice said again, “do you want your nanna to stand out here in the street?”
“Who’s that?” Claudia said to me. “Who is this woman?”
“It’s my nanna,” I said, feeling helpless.
Claudia looked at me like I was stupid. “Your nanna?”
“She was supposed to wait outside in Gavin’s car.” I knew none of what I said made sense, and I needed to get Nanna away from Claudia’s house. “She’s just an old woman. She can’t be standing out in the sun and heat all by herself.”
The insistent knocking started again, and Ian’s cell phone buzzed.
“It’s Nanna who’s been calling all this time,” Ian said.
Claudia scowled darkly. “Don’t answer. If she thinks no one’s home, she’ll go away.”
I laughed, despite the chilling hands of fear squeezing tight around my chest. “You don’t know my nanna. She’s going to stand out there and knock and knock until all your neighbors come out and ask you what’s going on.”
Claudia let out an exasperated grunt. “We need her to go away.”
I nodded rapidly. “I agree, I don’t want her coming in.”
“Tell her to get a taxi or something.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think that will work—she won’t want to wait outside in the heat while she knows that she could wait in here with us.” And then, a brainwave struck. “Why don’t I give her my car keys, and she can wait outside in my car while she waits for a taxi to arrive?”
Claudia turned the idea over in her mind.
The knocking started again, and this time, I heard Gavin’s voice saying, “Tiffany, hurry up, I really need to rush off. I’ve got a work emergency.”
Claudia sighed, as though she could imagine all her neighbors running out to see what the commotion was about.
“Fine,” she said, sounding grumpy and reluctant. “Here’s what we’ll do. You’ll go open the door, and I’ll stand behind you, pointing this gun at your back. You’ll give your Nanna your bag, and you’ll tell her to take your keys and wait in your car. If you try anything funny, I’ll kill you, and then I’ll kill your nanna.”
I nodded rapidly, trying not to hear the loud thudding in my chest. “Agreed.”
“Stay where you are,” Claudia said to Ian. “Don’t try anything stupid, or your friend here gets it.”
Ian nodded quickly. “Yes, exactly. No, I mean, no. Of course I won’t do anything stupid. I’ll just sit here. I can’t even think of anything stupid to do. I mean, I’ll just sit here. I won’t do anything.”
Claudia stared at Ian skeptically for a few seconds, trying to decide if she believed his scared act, or if he was some kind of deceptive superhero who would jump up the minute her back was turned and wrench the gun out of her hands. In the end, she decided that with Ian, what you saw was what you got—there was no way he could save the day.
“Pick up your bag and walk over to the door,” Claudia said to me. “Remember, no funny business.”
I did as she said. All I wanted to do was give Nanna the bag and have her wait for me in the car. Once Nanna was far away from Claudia, I could try to figure out a plan. Claudia positioned herself behind me so that anyone standing in front of me wouldn’t be able to see the gun.
We opened the door just as Nanna had raised her hand to knock again.
“It took you long enough!” Nanna said. She was wearing tan slacks and a floral-print blouse, and she looked flushed from standing in the midday sun for too long. “Gavin here’s decided to run off and abandon me.”
I glared at Gavin disapprovingly. This was all his fault.
Claudia was standing a foot behind me, and I could sense the gun pointed at my back.
Nanna looked at Claudia and said, “Who’re you?”
“This is Claudia,” I said quickly. “We were just having a quick chat.” I didn’t want to waste time berating Gavin, so I handed Nanna my bag and said, “My car keys are in there. Go wait for me in the car, and I’ll come join you when I’m done.”
“Don’t be silly,” Nanna said. “Why should I wait for you in the car?”
“We’re having a private conversation here,” I said. “I really need you to go and wait for me in the car.”
I motioned with my head toward my car, and gave her a desperate look. I hoped she would get the hint, and for once, stay out of trouble.
Instead, Nanna said, “I need to come in and see Ian. I’ve just had a brilliant idea for a dance routine.”
�
��You can tell him when we’re done talking to Claudia,” I said slowly. “Please. Just go and wait for me in the car.”
“I can’t do that,” Nanna said. “I need to see Ian right now and show him the routine. Otherwise I’ll forget.”
From behind me, Claudia said, “I can’t let you into the house. There are some issues with the flooring, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Don’t be silly,” Nanna said. “I’m not that old. I’m not about to hurt myself. I’ll just show Ian this dance routine, and then I’ll go do what she said, go wait in the car. It’ll just be a couple of seconds.”
I turned back to look at Claudia. I really didn’t know what to do—Nanna wasn’t about to give up without showing Ian her new brainwave of a dance routine. On the other hand, maybe she could just come inside and talk to Ian for a few seconds, and he would convince her to wait in the car.
Claudia rolled her eyes and took a large step toward me.
She grabbed my left arm tightly with her hand and pressed the gun into the small of my back.
She stood close enough to me that nobody would be able to see the gun. If she chose to, she could fire off a bullet that would leave me paralyzed or dead.
“Come in,” Claudia said to Nanna. I could feel the chill emanating from her. “Show Ian your dance routine, and then go wait in the car for Tiffany.”
My palms were clammy. Nanna handed my bag back to me. She smiled cheerfully, ignorant of the real situation.
“That’s more like it!” she said happily. “I know this routine I’ve just thought of is brilliant, and it’ll definitely get us through to the next round.”
“I want to see this routine of yours,” Gavin said, quickly following Nanna inside.
“I thought you had to run off to work.” I glared at him furiously. “That’s why you tried to dump Nanna in the middle of the street.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Gavin said. “Don’t you want me to help your nanna and Ian get through to the next round?”
Nanna and Gavin headed into the living room while Claudia and I stood in the foyer, looking in through the living room doorway.
Claudia kept her grip on my arm, and the gun pressed against the small of my back. I could feel its steely presence, poking against me in a constant reminder of the danger I was in. Ian shot me a panicked look, and I twisted my lips, trying to indicate that I didn’t know what to do.
Gavin plonked himself down onto one of the dark leather sofas and crossed his legs, leaning back to watch the show.
“I’ve thought of this really cool move I can do when you do your twerking,” Nanna said. “Instead of just moving my hands in front of my face, I can do something different. Let’s practice it now—you do your twerking, and I’ll do my move.”
“But I don’t have any music,” Ian said desperately.
“Just practice your move,” said Claudia, through clenched teeth. “Do your dance thing, and then the two of them can get out of here.”
“Put the music on your phone,” said Nanna. “You’ve got a track on there, don’t you?”
Ian looked to Claudia, wordlessly asking her what to do.
“Play the music,” hissed Claudia, her fingers digging sharply into my arm.
Ian fished out his phone. His hands trembled as he turned the playlist on. The music started pumping out, and the fast, upbeat tune made me feel like I was in some kind of horrific madhouse.
Ian stood up nervously and walked to the middle of the living room floor, two feet away from where Nanna was standing.
He looked at me, his eyes wild with fear and apprehension, and I glanced away. I didn’t want Claudia to get spooked by anything. The gun poking into my back was a reminder that I needed to stay calm. I needed Nanna to show us her dance brainwave and then leave. Safely, and in one piece.
Ian and Nanna stood there awkwardly while the music played. When the twerking section of the song started, Ian dropped down into a low squat and began moving his hips and twerking furiously.
Immediately, Nanna started throwing her hands up into the air, as though she was some kind of geriatric cheerleader. She seemed to be holding invisible pom-poms in her hands, and she waved them first one way, then the other. The two of them looked completely ridiculous.
For a brief moment, I forgot all about Claudia and the gun that was digging into my back. My jaw dropped. Gavin burst out laughing, and I heard Claudia say under her breath, “Whoa.”
The fingers gripping my arm seemed to have loosened their grip a little.
The fog of fear clouding my brain appeared to lift. Realization struck: Claudia must’ve been staring at Ian and Nanna, as bug-eyed and shocked as I’d been the first time I’d seen their routine.
I didn’t hesitate.
I spun around and gripped Claudia’s gun hand, twisting her arm to the side so she was pointing the gun away from the living room, and toward the door that I assumed was the garage door. Using all my strength, I shoved her down onto the floor and knelt over her.
Claudia clawed at me. My sudden move had caught her off guard. She fired a bullet into the garage door, and then another. She pressed her arm up, trying to point the gun back at me, and I leaned against her, using all my force to hold her arm in place.
Loud footsteps raced toward me, and then Ian was by my side. He helped me hold Claudia down, and somehow, I managed to wrench the gun from Claudia’s hand.
I handed the gun to Ian, and he pointed it at Claudia.
“Stay on the floor,” he said.
“What about our dance routine?” I heard Nanna saying from the living room. She sounded confused and disappointed. “What’s going on? If we don’t practice, I’m going to forget everything.”
I stood up shakily, and Claudia glared at me. “You and your dance routines,” she hissed. “I should never have let them dance in here.”
“You should never have done a lot of things,” I said. “You should never have killed Ella, and you should never have tried to kill Ian and me.”
28
Claudia stared at us with silent, angry eyes until the cops arrived.
The two young officers who showed up knew me from one of my previous cases. They listened to my story carefully, handcuffed Claudia, and led her away.
“You all need to stop by the station today,” one of them said to us. “We’ll need official statements from all of you.”
After they drove off, Ian, Nanna, Gavin and I stood in front of Claudia’s house and shuffled our feet, not wanting to leave.
The fear and adrenaline I’d felt when Claudia had threatened to kill Ian and me, and then Nanna, was starting to wear off. Exhaustion began seeping into my veins. I knew I needed to go home and rest, but I also couldn’t wait to talk to Ella’s sister and tell her that I’d solved the case.
“That was quite interesting,” Gavin was saying. “I didn’t know being an investigator could be so interesting. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have told you to stop.”
The sun was beating down, and I was starting to feel like it was time to get out of the heat and maybe go somewhere that was cool and peaceful. Maybe it was time to close my eyes and have a nice long nap.
“When did you tell me to stop investigating?” I said distractedly. It must’ve been when he’d been randomly chatting over lunch at my parents’ house, and I probably hadn’t paid attention.
“I sent you that note, remember? I thought that if you’d stop investigating this case, maybe we could spend more time together, or maybe you’d help Ian and Nanna with their reality TV show thing, and then you’d want to be nice to me.”
I turned to Gavin and frowned. A prickle of apprehension was crawling up my spine, and I said, “What note?”
“You know, the note I sent you,” Gavin said. “I said to stop investigating, ha ha. I added the ‘ha ha’ so that you’d know it was a joke.”
My chest tightened with a flash of anger. I saw a blinding, bright light that made it hard to focus. My breath was hot and
angry, and my temples began to throb.
“You left that note?” Ian was saying. “That was a really stupid thing to do. We could’ve had you arrested for harassment.”
I focused all my energies on breathing deeply and staying calm. My fingers curled into fists and uncurled. I needed to stop myself from jumping at Gavin and trying to strangle him.
How could someone be such an idiot? I had been afraid for my life, sure that a psychopathic killer was on our trail—that last part about the psychopathic killer had kind of been true, but I didn’t need an irresponsible person like Gavin sending me “joke” death threats.
“Whoa,” Gavin was saying. “It was a joke. I’m sure Tiffany can take a joke.”
I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself. “Ian’s right,” I said. “That was a stupid thing to do, and I’ll be glad if I never see you again.”
I marched off, not hearing whatever Gavin was saying in reply. If I stayed near him another second, I would soon be the one accused of murder, and I didn’t want that to happen.
Ian and Nanna followed me to my car, and as we drove off, Nanna said, “He seemed like such a nice young man. But at least he’s just silly and not really dangerous.”
“Silly people can be dangerous,” I said. “They just don’t know it.”
I hoped I would never have to see Gavin again, but somehow, I doubted it.
29
A few days later, I was at the casino, dealing out cards to blackjack players, smiling and chatting with them as they won and lost their hands.
The chime of a jackpot siren went off from one of the slot machines, and I heard an excited scream, followed by loud laughter.
“Seems like the slot machines are more fun than blackjack,” one of the players sitting opposite me said wryly.
I knew he was joking, so I said, “It depends on your game. I know poker players who hate slot machines.”
We chatted for a minute about different games, and when the conversation ran out and the players focused on their game, I let my thoughts drift off to the dinner I’d just had with Ryan.
Dancing With Danger in Las Vegas Page 15