The Rich and the Dead

by Liv Spector

  More than anything else, she wanted to call him back, to run into his arms, and to never, ever see Alexei again. So far, the best part of being Camilla Dayton had been meeting Dylan Rhodes.

  She realized, at that very moment, that she wanted Dylan’s love more than she wanted to find the killer. After all, once this was over, she’d be going back to the bleak, broken life she had left in 2018. Yet somehow, now, returning to that life would be even harder because she finally had a taste of real love.

  But it was all so much more complicated than that. The Dylan she knew now would soon be gone. He would be gunned down, paralyzed, and forever changed. Knowing what she knew about his terrible fate made it impossible for her to face him. She felt as if she was drowning in lies, cursed by knowing the tragic futures awaiting the people she loved.

  She let herself listen to Dylan’s voice once more and then, closing her eyes, deleted the message. Nothing good could come from continuing contact with him. She knew she had to walk away. It would be easier for them both if he thought she’d simply lost interest.

  But nothing could be farther from the truth.

  CHAPTER 27

  I’M ONE HUNDRED fucking percent not in the mood for one of these godforsaken charity events,” Effie said to Lila as they walked down the hall toward the ballroom where the annual Platinum Ball Gala was, from the sounds of the loud music pulsating through the air, in full swing.

  Lila looked questioningly at Effie, who, to her mind, was created for parties like these.

  “You’re a party girl who doesn’t want to go to a party? That’s like a bird who doesn’t want to fly, Ef,” Lila teased as she playfully grabbed Effie’s hand, swinging it to the beat of the music.

  The hallway was lined with candles, and pink lights crisscrossed in a tight pattern along the ceiling, giving attendees the feeling of entering some magical realm. The Platinum Ball was a black-tie event and one of the highlights of the Miami social calendar. Effie had spent weeks deliberating with Lila about what to wear and how to arrange her hair, so it was a bit shocking to hear this perfectly coiffed woman in a gorgeous Dior gown saying that she would rather be doing something else.

  “Here,” Lila said, grabbing a glass of champagne off a tray held by an exceptionally well-formed waiter with a boy-band haircut. “Drink this. It’ll make everything better.” Effie gave Lila a fake grin and gulped the champagne down in one impressive chug.

  “I’m going to need a few more of those.” Effie put the glass back on the tray, then picked up a full flute. “I’m going to circulate. Catch up with you later,” she said as she disappeared into a sea of gowns and tuxedos. As Lila walked the perimeter of the ballroom, she saw all of Miami society spread out before her. Among them, somewhere, were each of the twelve members of the Janus Society. Events like this were perfect opportunities for Lila to see all of the future murder victims interact in their most natural habitat—surrounded by other members of the financial and social elite.

  When she’d been a lowly detective trying to find the killer, Lila had always felt as if this high-society world kept a giant fence around itself, prohibiting outsiders from seeing and understanding its inner workings. Now she knew it was even worse than that. Even now that she was an insider, one of them, she was continually encountering more walls, more secrets, more mysteries, the closer she got to the center of it all.

  Then she saw Dylan.

  Panic flooded through her. She had been worrying all day that he would be at the ball, and here he was, standing with Vivienne Hunter, whose arms were wrapped tightly around his right biceps. From the looks on both of their faces, they were having a rather serious conversation. Dylan’s head was turned toward Vivienne, so Lila knew she had not yet been spotted. She needed to escape. Her heart racing, she stumbled blindly onto the veranda.

  A strong tropical breeze greeted her, as did the mesmerizing sound of the waves rhythmically crashing on the deserted beach below. Out of the corner of her eye, Lila saw two figures huddled in the darkness, way out of sight. She heard them whispering, but the moment she spotted them, they must have also seen her, because they fell silent. She walked toward them and was shocked to discover Teddy Hawkins and Meredith Sloan.

  “Camilla!” Meredith said, blinking at her with nervous eyes, her voice as tense as a wire. “How wonderful to see you.”

  “Yes,” Teddy echoed, with a strained smile. “Wonderful!” His eyes were darting around, as if looking for the closest exit.

  Meredith’s hair, which was always silken perfection, like the hair of a silent movie star, was loose in a halo of errant strands. Even in the dark light, Lila could see her bright lipstick was half smudged off, and a bit of mascara was crawling down under her eyes.

  “I came out here to admire the view,” Meredith nervously explained. “And ran into Teddy.”

  “Indeed. I needed a bit of fresh air myself,” he said quickly.

  “Of course, darling, you’ve heard that someone else closed on your house, right? Sorry I wasn’t the one to tell you.”

  “That’s fine,” Lila said. Teddy and Meredith were acting so strangely. She wondered what she had walked into. And then, as she saw the way Teddy’s eyes flicked over to Meredith, she realized the truth.

  Teddy and Meredith were having an affair.

  “We’ll find you another place in no time. Though I always suspected that you weren’t all that interested in buying that house. After all, it did have its problems.”

  “Don’t we all,” said Teddy.

  “But it’s rather windy out here, isn’t it? I feel as if I’ll be blown overboard. So, I think I’ll be heading back inside,” Meredith said, and, with that, she scuttled away, leaving Lila alone with Teddy.

  Lila stood there in silence, digesting it all. She still couldn’t believe that this man was the same one who would send her into the past to catch the Star Island killer. But at least now Lila knew why. It was for Meredith.

  Willow, the yoga teacher, had told Lila that Meredith was having an affair with a high-profile guy. Why hadn’t Lila realized it earlier? Teddy would become obsessed with the Star Island murders because the woman he loved would die in them.

  Encountering this Teddy, the Teddy that had yet to be devastated by the Star Island murders, still in love with Meredith and hopeful for the future, made her suddenly and unbearably sad.

  Teddy grabbed her hand. “Enough of us standing on the sidelines,” he exclaimed, energy filling his voice. “Why don’t you and I take a spin on the dance floor?”

  Lila took him in, the bright eyes, the contagious smile. How could she refuse this man anything?

  “Sure,” she said, as he pulled her inside.

  Laughing, Teddy spun Lila, then put one hand on her waist and the other hand in hers. She looked around to see if Dylan was close by, but fortunately, he was nowhere in sight. She gazed up at Teddy. In the ballroom glow she could see that there were traces of lipstick around his mouth. Teddy’s eyes were searching the room; then, when they caught something, an enormous smile spread across his face. His eyes were locked on Meredith, who was smiling back.

  “Ummm, Teddy,” Lila said gently as they danced. “You’ve got something all over your mouth.”

  “Really?” he said, producing a monogrammed handkerchief from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He wiped his mouth and, upon seeing the lipstick traces on the cloth, blushed a deeper shade of pink than the lipstick itself. “I was. I was”—he stumbled—“eating strawberries earlier. It seems I made a real mess of things.” Lila felt the hand that held hers grow warmer and sweatier.

  “Not at all,” she said. “You’re just fine.” They smiled at each other. “All cleaned up now.”

  As the rest of the night unfolded around her in all its grandeur, Lila couldn’t stop thinking about Teddy and Meredith, and Teddy’s relentless pursuit of the man who had killed his love. For the entire time that Lila had been living as Camilla Dayton in this strange, upside-down world, she’d thought of Ted
dy’s warnings not to change what had already occurred. Now she knew that he really, truly meant it. After all, Teddy hadn’t sent her back into the past to stop the murders, to save the woman he loved. He’d sent her here to find out who had carried out this terrible crime, so that, finally, he could bring the killer to justice.

  That was a kind of love that she admired. A brave love. She felt ashamed that she was too scared to share how she felt with Dylan. She doubted Teddy would be so frightened of a broken heart.

  The song ended, and Teddy drifted away from Lila and back toward Meredith. Lila’s cell phone chimed. As if he could read her mind, Dylan had sent her a text. Why are you avoiding me? She glanced up from her phone to see him looking right at her. She held his gaze, wanting to run to him, wanting to explain everything. Instead, she just texted him back: It’s for the best.

  She pressed Send, then hurried out of the ballroom. “It’s for the best,” she said aloud to the empty street.

  CHAPTER 28

  ALL MEN ARE bastards,” Effie said to Lila as she walked around the pool topless, a cigarette in one hand and a tumbler full of vodka on the rocks in the other. “I want you to know that I know that. I’m not saying, ‘Wait for your Prince Charming,’ because I’m not an idiot. Like, screw Prince Charming, right? But Alexei? Really?”

  Lila was outside, waiting for Alexei to pick her up in his yacht—or as he put it, “one of my yachts.” It was their second date. Lila wanted to say to Effie: This is the man who will put an end to your life in less than a month. I’m not dating him, I’m investigating him. But instead she just played the dumb girl, a role that, to her horror, she was getting quite good at.

  “Sometimes bad guys make for the best time,” Lila said. Effie gave her a dismissive wave.

  “You know what I don’t understand,” Lila continued, “is what Alexei has against Chase. I mean, the last time I saw him, he was ranting about Chase. It’s like he has a personal vendetta against him or something.”

  Effie’s eyes grew wide at this. “What exactly did he say?” she asked.

  “Nothing much. But he really hates him. Do you know if the feeling is mutual? Does Chase ever say anything about Alexei?”

  Effie laughed nervously, turning her back to Lila. “I have no idea who Chase Haverford likes or doesn’t like,” she said dismissively.

  Over the last few months of living with Effie, Lila had been observing how she interacted with the eleven other members of the Janus Society, and what she saw puzzled her. Sure, she had seen them all at the same parties and country clubs, but it seemed to Lila as if they almost actively avoided one another. Keeping the society’s membership a secret to the public made sense, to a certain extent. By not disclosing the names of its members, the society could avoid a continual bombardment of requests from people hoping to receive their massive annual donation. But why, Lila wondered, were the members themselves so cold to one another? Why did they all act like the society didn’t exist? Why was everything shrouded in so much secrecy?

  Suddenly a deafening roar pulled Lila away from her thoughts. She turned to see a giant cigarette boat pulling up at Effie’s dock, an oversize Russian flag waving behind it.

  “Oh, Christ, here’s Prince Charmless.” Effie sighed, putting her hands over her bare breasts. “I’m going inside. Just the thought of that creep seeing my tits makes me want to puke.”

  Alexei, who was impatiently watching Effie and his date talking, laid on the boat’s horn in two long, loud honks. Effie, placing her left forearm across her entire chest, gave him the finger with her right hand. Alexei, smiling, returned the gesture.

  “How lovely that the two of you are getting along,” Lila said sarcastically. “But remember, you should play nice. He’ll be your neighbor soon.” She began walking toward the dock, bile rising in her throat as she took in the grotesque spectacle that was Alexei posing in his ostentatious boat.

  “Please don’t remind me,” Effie called after her.

  Alexei was wearing an unbuttoned white silk shirt, which revealed his tanned, waxed, and tautly bloated torso. He looked somewhat like a hot dog.

  Steadying her nerves for yet another round with the Russian, Lila stepped onto the dock.

  “Hi, Alexei,” she said, her fake smile already exhausting the muscles of her face. “Thanks for coming to get me.” Without an offer of help from her date, she stepped down into the boat. The moment her foot left the dock, the boat roared off, causing Lila to stumble forward.

  “Buckle up,” Alexei shouted above the twin engines’ earsplitting noise. “I don’t want to have to fish you out of the water when you blow overboard.”

  The extreme speed of the boat caused its bow to push up almost out of the water, forcing Lila to practically crawl on her hands and knees to join Alexei at the front.

  “Can you slow down?” Lila cried as she tried to get up into the seat next to his.

  “Boo hoo,” Alexei said in a mocking tone. “Is Little Miss Tough Shit finally scared? Well, check this out,” he said as he made the boat go even faster. “I didn’t pay half a million for this thing so I could go slow.”

  He steered the boat around the southern tip of Miami Beach and then up the coast, parallel to its bustling beach. Though the waters off the coast of Miami were never short of showboating assholes, Lila had never seen someone drive a boat so recklessly. She cringed as he capsized two kayakers, almost collided with a couple in a small sailboat, and flipped off anyone unlucky enough to get in his way.

  What troubled Lila the most was that the closer Alexei got to possible bodily harm, the more he seemed to enjoy himself. Whenever he glanced over at Lila, who was holding on to the boat for dear life, he would laugh uproariously and then drive faster. He’s a textbook sociopath, Lila thought. For the first time since she’d been sent back in time, she was truly afraid.

  About ten minutes north of South Pointe and a few hundred feet from shore, Alexei suddenly killed the engines.

  “Why are we stopping here?” Lila asked, but Alexei cut her off with a hissing “Shh!”

  Digging out a pair of binoculars from beneath his chair, he used them to diligently scan the shoreline, spending a long time with his gaze trained on the Grand Palm Hotel, Ocean Drive’s largest and most profitable resort. And also, Lila knew, the crown jewel in Chase Haverford’s hotel empire.

  “What are you looking at?” she asked, wondering why all things with Alexei tended to circle around Chase.

  Alexei let out an exasperated sigh but kept the binoculars pressed against his eyes. “I feel like I’m with a child,” he said. “Always with the ‘why, why, why.’ ” He put down the binoculars and glared at her. Then he moved toward her, thrusting his hand down the back of her underwear.

  Without thinking, Lila slammed her elbow under his collarbone. Her police training was always there in her muscles, waiting to come out. She stepped back, worried that her cover was blown, but when she looked at Alexei, he seemed surprisingly pleased.

  “I love women who put up a fight,” he said.

  “Why’d you shove your hand down my underwear?” Lila snapped.

  “I was just checking to see if the little baby who asks so many questions had peed herself.” A lascivious smile stretched across his face. “If you keep pouting that pretty face at me, I’ll give you a spanking you’ll never forget.”

  “Don’t touch me,” she said while she looked around the boat for something she could use against Alexei if it came down to it, which she was starting to think it might.

  Alexei frowned at her in disbelief.

  “Don’t touch you? Why? You’ll punch me again? Just try it. That’s my kind of foreplay.” He shook his head. “But don’t play hard to get for too long. What else do you think you’re here for? Conversation? You American girls are never worth your price.”

  “I’m not for sale.”

  “That’s what you’d like to think, wouldn’t you?” Alexei’s face slackened, as if he pitied her and her innocence. He resum
ed his inspection of the Grand Palm. “You know who owns that hotel over there?” he said.

  “I don’t,” Lila lied.

  “A little gold digger like you? You know exactly who owns this place,” he growled. “Don’t waste my time pretending to play dumb. That cocksucker Chase Haverford owns it. This eyesore is that bastard’s pride and joy.”

  “Again with Chase,” Lila said.

  “You’re quite close with him, no?”

  “Who do you want to fuck? Me or Chase?”

  Alexei slowly lowered the binoculars and turned toward Lila.

  “Both,” he answered.

  “What’ve you got against him anyway?” she asked.

  “Why waste time speaking of things known by us both?”

  Understanding she’d get nowhere, Lila dropped the subject.

  CHAPTER 29

  THE STARS WERE just beginning to show in the sky by the time Alexei dropped Lila off at Effie’s dock. There was a hint of winter in the air. Lila wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to keep warm.

  Her mood was heavy. The evening had been a failure, and a brutalizing one at that. All Lila had learned about Alexei was that he was a sadistic monster who embraced danger and hated Chase. So, nothing new. Throughout their time together, she had asked him in as many ways as she could think of to explain this obsession he had with Chase, but she had gotten absolutely nowhere. Alexei was not a man willing to share his secrets with anyone, least of all a woman, whom he clearly thought of as one step below a dog.

  Once she knew she had hit a brick wall, Lila had wanted to get away from the Russian as quickly as possible. So she’d feigned seasickness, even going so far as to fake-vomit off the side of the boat as he looked on in horror. She was back home within ten minutes.

  Feeling windblown and battered by his crazy driving, Lila went to give Alexei a kiss on the cheek before she got off the boat. He recoiled, turning his face away from her.