by Sarah Kelly
I accept you and your hostility with open arms, India sent, trying not to feel intimidated.
Gianna lunged forward and pushed India against the hallway wall by her neck. India felt the points of her pale pink manicured nails press into the flesh just above her collarbone.
“Gianna, stop!” India cried out.
Gianna pushed her face close. “Leave this alone,” she hissed. “Just go home back to your pathetic little life and let us be.”
India could barely breathe.
It’s okay, she sensed Luis say, follow the instructions.
Though all India wanted to do was scream and push Gianna away, she managed it. I accept you and your hostility with open arms.
Suddenly Gianna dropped India’s neck and took a step back. Her eyes widened with horror, and her hands went over her mouth. “Oh my gosh. I’m so, so sorry.”
India’s urge was to give her a huge telling off, but she knew the next step was to compliment Gianna. Wow, this is counter-intuitive. She racked her brains, trying to think of something to say. The obvious thing was to praise her dress sense and appearance, but as soon as she opened her mouth it closed again. She remembered Luis’ advice of trying to feel the energy.
“I can’t believe I did that,” Gianna said.
And, all at once, the compliment flew right into India’s mind. She had no doubt it was the right thing to say. “You’re a loyal girlfriend, Gianna.”
Gianna’s eyes welled up with tears, and India’s mind raced, trying to work out what that meant. Did it mean Hayden really killed Onyx, or Answer, or both, and Gianna was a loyal girlfriend for trying to cover it up, or was it nothing to do with the murder, just something she wanted to hear?
“Everybody get downstairs, now!” a man shouted from downstairs.
India immediately recognized the voice as Kimble, and her heart sank. She hadn’t managed to squeeze anything out of Gianna like she’d hoped. India dared to believe that maybe Kimble, Xavier and herself working together would be able to find the truth, but she was doubtful. Kimble wasn’t exactly a team player, and wanted all the glory for himself.
Gianna touched India on the arm. “I really am sorry. It’s just all been so stressful. I didn’t mean to do that at all. Oh, you must think I’m the one that killed Erica and Answer now, but I’m really not, I swear.”
“Okay,” India said gently, not knowing what to think. “Let’s go downstairs now.”
Soon, everyone was in the lime and pink drawing room. Kimble had forced Xavier to go and make coffee. Truth be told, he wasn’t the best at it, and most of the cups of weak decaff were returned back to the table after a single sip. Only India sipped away at hers, partly because she didn’t want to offend Zave in front of everyone, and partly because she needed something to do. She paced as she sipped, hoping all the pieces would come together in her head.
Gianna sat in the window seat, looking every inch a movie star, while Mark was in a wingchair, one leg crossed over the other and jiggling nervously. Hayden slumped on the couch, looking like he wanted to die. It was impossible to tell who the murderer, or murderers, were. Every time India thought she had drawn a conclusion, another idea popped into her head.
Kimble was sweating in his police uniform as he strode around the room like India, looking supremely confident. India sensed he was nervous underneath all the bravado. Xavier stood at the door, looking like he was out of his depth but handling it the best he could.
“Right,” Kimble said, like he knew what he was doing, then looked between the three suspects. “We’re not getting out of this room until we get a confession.”
“Here we go,” Mark said. “Detective playing big shot.”
Kimble strode over and pointed his finger into Mark’s face. “Don’t get smart, punk, or I’ll haul you in whether you’re the killer or not.”
Mark stayed cool. “On what grounds?”
“Did you kill Erica Johnson?” Kimble barked. “Or Answer Davis, Gabrielle Fuller, whatever?”
“No.”
Kimble stared at him for a moment, breathing heavily through his nostrils, then began to pace the room again. After a few moments of tense silence, he looked up at India, with a look of sneering contempt. “Bradford says you’ve been poking your nose around, making yourself a nuisance.”
“Sir, that’s not what—” Xavier began.
“So, what have you found out?” Kimble said, crossing his arms and looking at India like she was dirt on his shoe.
India found that since Luis had shown her that technique, she was feeling much less defensive. She sat down on a chair with soft fuchsia upholstery and spoke quietly. “I’ve found out quite a lot, actually. Maybe too much.”
“Tell us then, Miss Marple.”
Now India really got what Xavier was talking about. This Kimble could be a real piece of work. She tried to organize her thoughts. Three theories buzzed around in her head.
“Well, at first I thought it was Hayden.”
Hayden looked up, suddenly alert. “But you don’t now, do you?”
In truth, India didn’t know. “I’m not sure. I mean, you were the one who sent the glass of champagne to Onyx, through my friend Amy. Also, you had the motive. You were seeing Gianna behind Onyx’s back, and were planning to propose to her. Plus, you’d get 50% of Onyx’s money when she died.”
Hayden looked distraught. “But why would I kill Answer?”
“Because she didn’t have time to put her 50% from Onyx into the charities, so that would have come to you as well. It would have been a good few million.”
Kimble raised his eyebrows. “That certainly is a means and a motive.”
“Plus, when India and I came back and found Answer was dead, we saw Gianna’s dress, Hayden’s clothes, and a load of bedsheets on the line, that weren’t there that morning. Maybe they were in it together, killed Answer in Onyx’s bedroom, and then washed everything to make sure there was no evidence?”
Kimble nodded. “Sounds plausible.”
“No!” Gianna almost shouted from the windowseat. “That’s not what happened.”
“So tell us what happened,” India said gently.
Gianna looked from Hayden, to Mark, then back again. Then she stared down in her lap. “I did it,” she said.
“Aha!” Kimble said.
“What?” India was genuinely shocked. She’d confessed? “You killed both of them?”
“Yes,” said Gianna.
India stood, remembering the compliment that had flown into her mind upstairs, and made Gianna cry. “Are you confessing because you’re actually guilty, or are you trying to save your boyfriend?”
“Because I did it,” Gianna said forcefully. “I killed Onyx and Answer. I killed Onyx because I hated her and wanted her out of the way so I could be with Hayden and he could get his money. And I killed Answer in Onyx’s room because she found me there trying to plant a suicide note.”
Kimble took the handcuffs off his waist and began to walk toward her. “Gianna Whelan, I am arresting you—”
“No!” Hayden said. “Please!”
“-on the suspicion of first degree murder of Erica Onyx Johnson and Answer Davis. You have the right to remain silent and—”
Gianna burst into wails so loud they drowned him out. India felt sick.
Look deeper, India heard Luis say, loud and clear. This isn’t over.
Kimble was securing the cuffs on Gianna’s wrists.
Something was building up in India, like a wave, gaining momentum, about to crash. And then it all finally came into place. “No!” India shouted. “It’s not her!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kimble said, snapping the cuffs into place. “She just confessed.”
“She did it to protect me,” Hayden said, tears pouring down her cheeks. “It was me. I killed them both.”
Kimble looked between them, totally confused.
“No,” India said. “It wasn’t either of you. It was Mark.”
“What
?!” Mark said, springing to his feet. He lunged toward India, but Xavier dashed across the drawing room and hauled himself onto him, pushing him over. With mighty strength, Xavier turned him over and slapped his own cuffs on him. India felt her heart surge with pride watching him.
Kimble turned to India, his face pale. “What’s your evidence?”
India sat down again. “It’s all jumbled in my head right now, but let me just tell you what I know. Mark is a heavy gambler, playing poker mostly, on the internet.”
“That’s not a crime!” Mark shouted.
“But in the past, he ran up a massive bill with the Hilton casino in New York he’s yet to pay off for $2million,” India said. “I found that out on a celeb gossip website this morning. He also has unpaid tax bills, like Onyx. I couldn’t find out how much those were, but if they’re anything like Onyx’s they’ll be in the millions. So he’s millions of dollars in debt.”
“You think a little girl like you can solve a murder?” Mark shouted from his place under Xavier’s knee. “Detective, I hope you know how pathetic this is.”
“Shut up!” Xavier yelled.
“He has no money, he told me that himself,” India said. “Think about it this way. Onyx was Mark’s only client. His only hope of repairing his life. He arranged the concerts, and I worked out… One second.” She got her phone out and flicked onto the calculator app again. “Basically from the 250,000 tickets at $110 each, he gets 15% after expenses. After all that and tax he’s probably looking at only $1.7 million, not nearly enough to cover his debt. Now everyone knows Onyx is going to do terribly in these shows. Most everyone told me she hasn’t got the voice, looks, fitness or energy to pull them off anymore. So Mark figures once she does the shows, her career is over, and by extension, his career is over, too. Their reputation would be ruined. So he can’t let her perform. She’s worth more to him dead than alive.”
Kimble frowned. “Great story, but how is she worth money to him dead?”
India smiled sadly. “He actually told me that one himself. He’s going to rerelease all her records, and because she’s dead, they’ll be a load more sales. Look what happened to Michael Jackson. Record sales went through the roof when he passed away.”
“This is all conjecture,” Mark said. “Detective, don’t believe her.”
Kimble folded his arms across his chest. “So how did he poison Onyx?”
“When I looked out the window,” India said, “Onyx was already sipping champagne. That was the poisoned one, which Mark must have given to her. The one Hayden sent out for her had nothing to do with it.”
Kimble nodded, seeming to take it in his stride. “And what about finding poison in Answer’s essential oils? How can you explain that? I still think Answer killed Onyx with the essential oils. Maybe Mark then killed her out of jealousy.”
“Mark planted the cyanide in Answer’s oils, then tipped Xavier and me about it, trying to throw the heat on her,” India explained. “And I think I know what happened next. I think I know how Answer died.”
Gianna let out a sob. India looked at her and shook her head. She had begun to feel very sorry for her.
“What do you think happened?” Kimble asked, sounding genuine for once.
“When Xavier and I took Answer’s essential oils for testing, she was very shaken up,” India said. “I thought that was because she was guilty, but it looks like her story of nervousness and anxiety was the truth. So she went into Onyx’s room to find some essential oils she kept in there, and she stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to see.”
Gianna burst into tears.
“What?” Kimble said.
India took a deep breath, hoping her theory was 100% right. “Mark and Gianna in bed together.”
Hayden gasped. “What? Gianna, is… is it true?”
Gianna burst into fresh sobs, but did not confirm or deny.
“Wait a minute,” Kimble said. “If Hayden’s nothing to do with it, then why did he run, then come back and confess?”
India had that all thought out. “Well, he wasn’t thinking straight. He ran because he was scared he’d be accused, right?”
Hayden nodded.
“But then came back because he thought it was Gianna, slaying her love rival,” India said. “That’s why he confessed.”
Kimble frowned, sounding impatient. “But then he retracted the confession.”
“Because I realized she couldn’t have done it, when I thought it through,” said Hayden. “She was with me the whole time, and I watched out the window and saw her go down to the pool. She didn’t give Erica anything.”
Kimble was red faced. “So why didn’t you come and report to us that it was Mark?”
Hayden looked down in his lap. “I thought it might have been suicide,” he said. “Up until Answer was killed.”
“Why didn’t you come then?” Xavier asked.
“I was confused,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion. “Gianna stopped talking to me. My head was a mess. I couldn’t figure out my left from my right.”
Gianna continued to cry.
“And Answer always thought it was Gianna who killed Onyx,” India said. “She told me that the day after the murder. So when she found them in bed together, perhaps she accused them, maybe even threatened Gianna physically. After all, she did have a history of violence. But Mark, being Gianna’s lover, sprung to her aid, and strangled Answer to death. Afterward they stripped off their clothes and the bedsheets, washed them, and hung them out on the line, to make sure there was no evidence. To be fair, there probably wouldn’t have been any. There was no blood.”
“So it was Mark’s clothes on the line,” Xavier said. “Not Hayden’s.”
Mark had fallen into silence.
Gianna looked up at India, her eyes red, mascara running down her face in streaks. “How did you know we were together?”
India paused. “There were a few things. Hayden told me that your favorite color was purple, Gianna. But when I relayed that to you, you looked flustered, and said you liked green. So I figured, why did you lie about something so silly as a favorite color, and then act like you’d done something wrong? So I realized you were lying to Hayden, and I thought it can’t be love. It has to be for a reason, the relationship. So I put two and two together.”
Kimble chuckled. “That’s a bit of a stretch.”
“I know,” India said. “But there are a couple other things too, and they just all added up. When we were in the kitchen the day after Answer’s murder, Gianna said to me, ‘to know the man you’re sleeping with is a cold-blooded killer? You don’t know what that’s like’. And when I questioned why she said know instead of think, she got mad. I thought she was talking about Hayden, of course. And that’s what she wanted me to think. But she was talking about Mark.”
Hayden sat back, stunned. “So you were trying to pin it all on me?”
Gianna could not meet his eyes.
“You saw Mark murder Answer didn’t you, Gianna?” India asked. “And after that, you realized you’d gotten in way too deep.”
“Yes,” Gianna cried. “Yes. I wish none of this ever happened.”
“Too bad,” said Kimble. “Because it did.”
India stood. “Just one thing I’d be interested to know, Mark?”
“What?” he spat.
“How long have you and Gianna been together? You told her to work on Hayden, to make him fall in love, giving him the best motive in the world to kill Onyx. Didn’t you?”
Xavier let Mark sit up, though he held onto his cuffs firmly.
“Gianna and I have been together eleven years, ever since my marriage broke up,” Mark said, looking at her with pure hatred in his eyes. “And you spoiled everything. My relationship, the money, my plans. Everything. I killed them, yes, I killed them, and my plan was perfect. Until you came along.”
Hayden put his head in his hands. “Oh my god, oh my god.”
“I’m so sorry,” Gianna cried. “I�
�m just so sorry.”
Kimble pulled her up by the handcuffs. “Too late for that, Missy. Two people are dead. Dead and gone forever, because you went along with this vile piece of scum. You’ll be charged with being an accessory to murder.”
Xavier winked at India as he and Kimble led Mark and Gianna away and out of the beach house.
India and Hayden were left alone. India’s heart broke as she watched him cry. He had truly lost everything. The girlfriend Onyx he so tenderly cared for, and Gianna, who he had thought was the love of his life. Plus, India couldn’t help thinking, his innocence. He seemed a really good guy, but quite naïve. She hoped he stayed just as good hearted. Of course, he would be inheriting millions of dollars, so she hoped that could help him on the way to rebuilding his life.
He sobbed, doubling over and not at all attempting to hide his tears. India wished there was a spell to take the pain away, but somehow she thought that wouldn’t quite do the trick here. Sometimes life hurt, and you just had to let it out. There was only one thing to do. She went over to him and sat next to him on the couch. Then she took him in her arms and let him cry into her shoulder.
“It’s over now,” she said soothingly. “It’s over.”
***
“Will you just tell us where you’re taking us?” Amy said, laughing as she dragged her feet across the sand. “We’ve been walking forever.”
“Oh, come on, Amy,” Xavier said with a chuckle. “Seeing as you’re treating us to a feast later, it’s best we work it off now.”
“I’m not eating with you!” Amy protested. “I’ll be like some awkward third wheel. Come on, this is candlelight, romance, the whole works.”
India smiled to herself. It was so sweet of Amy to offer to cook them a romantic meal, and after all the stress of the murder case, they were glad to accept.
Where the beach met the forest, she peered upward, trying to get a glimpse of the treehouse Luis had taken her to. She had wanted to take Amy and Xavier up there. Even though she couldn’t tell them about her powers, at least she could involve them somehow, even if they weren’t fully aware of what was going on. It was less scary that way. But it was nowhere to be found.