“We have Carmen to attest to the fact that you’d stopped fearing him. Or, since she’s now convinced you’re off your rocker, she might claim you came out here to kill Dominic. In any case, there will be a record that a call was placed to your house from here. Obviously it was from Dominic. We also have the cab driver who will testify that he brought you out here.”
Nicole was close enough now to see that Paul’s eyes were red-rimmed. He looked shockingly pale and exhausted. Obviously Ray had grabbed him last night, after she’d left. He’d been a prisoner all day. And he’d been beaten. Badly.
Her hand clenched around the gun in her pocket. “Ray, you never finished telling me what your plan for us is.”
“Dominic will kill you, and I’ll kill Dominic. I’ll probably get a commendation for it.”
“Paul will kill me with your gun? That won’t work.”
Ray looked disgusted. “No, Nicole. The gun I’m holding to Paul’s head, the gun that will kill you, isn’t mine. It came from the Dominic house. And by the way, you might as well take your hand out of your pocket. I know you have your gun in there, but it isn’t loaded.”
Color drained from her face. “You unloaded it?”
“Yes, today. I pick locks, remember? I was in your house.”
Anger soared in her. “You thought of everything, didn’t you? You even planted the money in Dooley’s apartment.”
“I didn’t plant it. A couple of years ago I destroyed evidence and saved Dooley from a murder charge. He owed me, but I paid him anyway. I told him I wanted you killed, and I told him what lie to tell Jewel about how he got the money. I had him follow you. He let me know you were on the River Walk. I ordered him to rough you up and get your purse, that’s all. Later he was to go to your house and murder you. Meanwhile, I smashed that padlock and let Jesse out. When I took you home, I searched the house to make sure all was safe, remember? Only while I was in the basement, I unlocked a window and pulled a chest underneath it.”
“But why did you put a patrolman outside? That only made things more dangerous.”
“That was unfortunate. Erwin, the officer who questioned you after your attack on the River Walk, likes to make women uncomfortable to their faces, but underneath he has this disgusting soft streak. He dispatched Abbott. He spotted a man walking toward your house. He was starting to get out of the cruiser, so I walked up to him like I had nothing to hide, and I killed him. I had no choice. Then I came into the house via the window and waited for Dooley. It was always my plan to kill him before he got to you. Simple.”
“But you didn’t count on Newton Wingate seeing you.”
“He saw someone talking to Abbot. Someone with long dark hair. So did those kids who spotted somebody messing around with Roger’s car. Long dark hair. Like Dominic’s.”
“A wig.”
“Sure.” He sighed. “The only thing that went wrong was Jewel. That idiot Dooley told her who really gave him the money. She stuck to the story, but I could tell she knew the truth by the way she looked at me when Waters and I questioned her. I tried to kill her, but I wasn’t successful.”
Nicole released her grip on the gun. If it were unloaded, what good was it except as an object to strike him with? Ray, on the other hand, had at least two loaded guns. All she could think of to do at the moment was to keep talking.
“But why didn’t you kill Roger like you did the others?”
“Roger had an annoying habit of never being alone. He’s always with his girlfriend. I had to find another method. It didn’t quite work, but it didn’t matter. Things still looked bad for you, and you came running to me. Just what I wanted.” He signed. “So much planning. So much energy. I thought it was worth it I thought you were worth it.” He gave her a piercing stare. “But you aren’t.”
“What if I hadn’t met Paul last night? What if your feelings for me hadn’t changed? I would surely have been arrested, maybe even found guilty of the murders.”
“No. I knew I could lure out Paul when the time was right. Then I would kill him. And there was evidence to link him to the crimes. He’d been in his mother’s house, remember? I’d told Rosa to be on the lookout for any signs of Dominic. She did a pretty good job. Fear will sharpen the senses, you know. By now she’s scared stiff of me. She knew if she didn’t come up with something, she might not live long. She got strands of Dominic’s hair from Alicia’s bedspread. They would match the strands found on Dooley’s shirt, where I’d placed them. Dominic had also cut himself shaving in his mother’s bathroom. He didn’t do a very good job of cleaning up. Rosa found the blood. She had sense enough to save traces for me, which I added some water to and put on the broken window in the Simon-Smith woman’s door. You didn’t know about this evidence, of course, but you were always fairly much in the clear. I couldn’t have provided an alibi for you by claiming to have a long phone conversation with you between ten-thirty and eleven-thirty the night I killed the Smith woman.”
“I know. Phone records.”
Ray smirked at her. “Very good. Catching on at last.”
“But what about the prowler in the wolf mask?”
“Dooley.”
“Where did he get the mask?”
“Rosa bought it for herself. I took it. Then I called Bobby and told him if anyone asked, he was to say Lisa bought it”
“Then Carmen wasn’t lying,” Nicole said with a wave of guilt.
“No. She told you what Bobby told her. She always told you the truth, but I wanted you to doubt her. I didn’t want you to believe in anybody except me, so I told Bobby to lie about the mask.”
Nicole frowned. “I don’t understand. Why would Bobby lie for you?”
“Bobby’s afraid of me because way back when I knew Magaro and Zand, I learned about his taste for underage girls. After I became a cop, I kept up with him. You never know when you’ll need dirt on someone,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ve got so much evidence against him, I could ruin his life. He wouldn’t dare disobey me.” He tilted his head. “Of course, the same was true of Avis Simon-Smith. Four years ago she killed her mother. At that time I was a detective investigator assigned to the case. Foul play couldn’t be proved, but I knew she did it, and she knew I knew. The crazy bat was terrified of me.”
“You ordered her to push me in the parking lot?”
“Not specifically. I just told her to publicly humiliate you.”
“That’s why you became a cop, isn’t it? It gave you power over people. Power you never had as a child.”
“Forget the amateur psychology, Nicole. You can’t have power unless God lets you have it. God is on my side.”
“God, or the devil?” a man’s voice rang out.
Ray’s gaze shot behind Nicole. She turned. Cy Waters stood in the door of the church, his gun drawn.
“Waters!” Ray shouted. Nicole looked back at him. His face transformed. The weird smirk was gone. He looked tough, businesslike, in control. “I’ve got Dominic. He was going to kill Nicole.”
“Won’t work, Ray,” Waters said. “I’ve been standing outside the door for ten minutes. I wanted to hear this.”
Ray jerked Paul, causing him to flinch in pain, jamming the gun into his temple. “What are you doing here?”
“I followed you. I got a call from Jewel Crown earlier this evening. She had some interesting things to say about your paying Izzy to kill Nicole, then shooting at her on the street the other night.”
Ray laughed emptily. “And you took her seriously? She’s a hooker and a coke addict.”
“It wasn’t just Jewel. I’ve never trusted you, DeSoto.”
“Never trusted me?” Ray sneered. “Oh, that explains it. Well, tell me something, Cy. If you didn’t trust me, why didn’t you say so to someone?”
“Because you’re a super cop. Never made a mistake. Made sergeant at thirty-one. Commendations up to your neck. What was I supposed to do—complain about you just because you gave me the creeps but I didn’t know why?”
/> Ray gave him a lopsided grin. “What about your attitude toward Nicole? You seemed convinced she was guilty. You dragged her over the coals. What was that all about?”
“Partly because that’s my way—I always play bad cop. But partly because when I first suspected what you were up to, I couldn’t believe it. I decided to act normal and just watch to see if you made any mistakes. And you did. You’ve screwed up a couple of times lately, Ray.”
Ray stiffened as if affronted by an insult “Like when?”
“Like taking the gun used in the Zand-Magaro murders out of Evidence the day after I said I was going to have Ballistics go over it again.”
“What’s the big deal about that? I put it back.”
“After you were satisfied that the serial number couldn’t be recovered. They told me in Ballistics you’d brought the gun over and asked. But you got too cocky. You didn’t let them try. I did. This time they were able to bring it up. The gun was registered to General Ernest Hazelton, Nicole’s grandfather.”
Ray pulled a face. “I guess that means Nicole killed Zand and Magaro.”
“My father tried,” Nicole said desperately to Cy. “But he couldn’t go through with it. He dropped the gun. Ray picked it up. He was in Basin Park that night. He knew Magaro and Zand. Sergeant Waters, he’s Paul’s half-brother.”
“So I heard,” Cy said slowly. “So, Ray, Alicia Dominic is your mother, but you were raised by Rosa DeSoto.”
“So what?”
“So you were in the vicinity of the Zand-Magaro murders. So you knew Paul Dominic, but you never said anything in all these weeks. So you had a very good motive for trying to pin a murder on him.”
“That’s not proof.”
Cy went on equably. “I’ll tell you another thing that bothered me. You’ve always been a stickler for rank. Yet you insisted we go check on that Simon-Smith woman. That’s not our job, Ray. But you had to go to her house. You even dragged me around back so we’d be sure to find her body and Dominic’s blood on the broken window.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
Cy stepped into the room. “None of this explanation is necessary. I just don’t want you to believe I’m as dumb as you’ve always thought I was. But even if I were, I heard what you said to Nicole. You told her everything, including the fact that you killed Zand and Magaro.”
“Well, now, that’s just your word against mine, isn’t it?” Ray asked.
So fast that Nicole hardly saw it, Ray swept the gun from Paul’s temple and fired. The bullet whizzed past Nicole’s face. Abruptly Cy cried out in pain.
Nicole couldn’t duck. She couldn’t take her eyes off Ray as he leveled the gun at her. This is it, she thought, frozen. There’s nothing I can do. I have no weapon. Dodging behind a pew won’t help. He’ll just keep firing until he hits me. Good-bye, my darling Shelley. Good-bye, Paul.
Suddenly Paul lunged to the left, throwing Ray off balance. His gun went off, hitting the iron chandelier and sending it dancing wildly. Ray screamed in rage. He whirled, pointing the gun at Paul’s head.
“No!” Nicole screamed a second before another explosion sounded in the church, ripping through the sound of the beautiful chants.
Nicole’s hands covered her head. Who’d fired a gun? she thought frantically. Cy or Ray?
Her heart thudding with fear, she slowly lifted her head. Ray stood behind the altar. Paul stood beside him.
For a moment, neither Paul nor Ray moved. Then she watched in amazement as Ray’s features softened. His eyes looked beyond her, looked at nothing, really. Finally he smiled. “Mother!” he said softly.
Then he pitched forward on his face, toppling off the altar into the flowers, his blood splattering the delicate white altar cloth.
Epilogue
Nicole, Paul, and Shelley crossed the cemetery grounds. Jordan trotted alongside Paul. Shelley held Jesse on a leash.
Paul wore a cast on his arm and a bandage on his cheek. Jordan bore a bare spot and stitches on her head from a laceration above a concussion: Ray had left her for dead on the mission grounds when he’d taken Paul home and kept him tied in his basement without food or water. When Jordan revived, she’d hidden on the mission grounds, waiting for her master to return.
Paul, Nicole, and Shelley all carried flowers. They stopped at Clifton Sloan’s grave.
The wind blew Nicole’s hair around her face. She looked beyond the grave to the knoll where the large Pinchot juniper grew. “It seems like months, ago that Dad’s funeral service was being held and I looked up to see you and Jordan standing on that knoll. You looked right into my eyes.”
“And you went all white,” Shelley said.
“I hadn’t seen him for fifteen years, honey. I thought he was dead.”
“But you’re sure glad he’s not.” Shelley looked at Paul and beamed. “Me, too. Mommy told me she used to love you. I think she still does.”
Paul smiled at her. “I hope so.”
“I’m still a little sad about Ray, though.” Shelley frowned. “I thought he was our friend.”
“He fooled a lot of people,” Nicole said. “He wasn’t what he seemed to be.”
“Yeah, I know.” Shelley laid a single red rose on her grandfather’s grave. “Do you think Grandpa knows we’re here?”
“I don’t know,” Nicole said.
“I think he does. I think he knows it’s a pretty day and we’re all here, even Jesse.” Then with a child’s quick change of attention, she asked, “Can I take Jesse and Jordan to look at some of the other flowers?”
“Yes,” Nicole said.
Paul nodded to Jordan, who trotted along with Shelley and an exuberant, sneezing Jesse.
When they were a few feet from the grave, Paul put a hand on Nicole’s shoulder. “How do you feel?”
Nicole shrugged. “Sad. Strange. Paul, I didn’t know my father at all.”
“Yes you did,” he said gently. “You know he loved you. That’s all that’s really important.”
“I’m surprised you can say that. What about what he did to you?”
Paul’s gaze dropped. “When Ray first told us the truth, I was furious with your father. Enraged. But then I thought about it. What would his coming forward have accomplished? Who would have believed his vague story about a third figure he couldn’t identify in the park? All the police would have concentrated on was him. He had the motive, the opportunity, and the means. The gun was part of your grandfather’s estate left to your mother. She told us it was kept in a locked chest in the attic. She never looked at the guns, never even knew it was missing from the collection.”
“But she suspected I’d been sleepwalking the night Zand and Magaro were murdered.”
“Suspecting isn’t knowing. She didn’t want to upset you. And she didn’t know your father had come back from Dallas that night.”
“But he had. And he could have cleared you.”
“I think he was taking the chance that I would be found innocent.”
“That was quite a chance.”
Paul smiled. “Nicole, your father was human. He made a mistake. Just like my mother. But they paid for their mistakes. Your father probably never had a moment’s peace of mind for fifteen years. The guilt must have been awful. That’s why he left the church. Finally, when Ray’s tormenting started, he just couldn’t stand it anymore. And Nicole, with the exception of your father’s death, everything did work out for us in the end. The real killer is dead. I’ve been cleared. We’re together again. You have a beautiful daughter. Your husband has left Lisa. Even Carmen has forgiven you.”
“I guess you’re right,” Nicole said listlessly. “But none of this had to happen if Dad had just told the truth.”
Paul’s voice was gentle. “Nicole, please remember all the things you loved about your father. That’s what I’ve tried to do with Mother. Don’t let one bad mistake negate all the good things he did in his life. And you know, I’m convinced that if I hadn’t run, if I’d gone to trial and he’d
seen that it was going badly for me, he would have come forward.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I can’t believe how forbearing you are.”
“I told you I learned a lot during my years on the road. One of them was tolerance for people’s weaknesses. After all, look what I did. Instead of facing my troubles, I ran. I put the people who loved me through a lot of pain because of that decision. I hope they can forgive me. I’ve tried to forgive my mother for how she treated Ray, pushing him aside, leaving him in that devil Rosa’s care, ignoring the abuse. It made him what he was. And I think you should forgive your father. He was a good man, Nicole. He just panicked. So did I.”
Nicole sighed. “You’re right. Dad did make a mistake—a huge one.” She looked up at him and smiled sadly. “But I still love him.”
“Of course you do.”
She kneeled and put her bouquet of pink chrysanthemums on the grave. Then Paul kneeled also, placing a bunch of hyacinths beside her bouquet. “White hyacinths,” he said. “A long time ago my mother told me they mean, ‘I’ll pray for you.’ ”
They both stood. Nicole looked up at Paul, her eyes brimming with tears. “I think I can finally cry for him, now.”
Paul wrapped his good arm around her, pulling her close. He kissed the top of her head. “Let the tears come, Nicole. You can always cry to me because I’ll never leave you again.”
Here’s A Preview Of Carlene Thompson’s Next Exciting Novel, In The Event Of My Death…
Angela Ricci wished again she had a dog. She’d always wanted one, but her fastidious ex-husband said they were dirty. Stuart Burgess. How could she have ever found such a creep attractive? What a pain he’d been to live with, constantly washing his hands, throwing a fit if he found a spot on his tie, developing a migraine when he came home to find the place looking like anything other than a museum.
But she’d been divorced from Stuart for a year. The settlement had been generous. Very generous. And why not? Stuart wasn’t as fastidious about his personal liaisons as he was about the externals of his life. He would die if anyone found out about his taste for prostitutes. Young male prostitutes. She’d never threatened to tell. She wouldn’t have told, both because she didn’t want the negative publicity and because Stuart had a dangerous streak that frightened her. Fortunately, paranoid Stuart had perceived a threat from her and decided money would keep her silent.
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