Alice had turned to watch her and was amazed at her actions and delighted that she cleaned up so well. She turned around and shared a deep and intimate kiss with the Senator before holding her as they both continued to calm down and think about what both had just experienced.
Cecilia was the first to make a move. “We have to clean up,” she said hesitantly, reluctantly.
Alice nodded wondering what she had in mind. Her makeup was ruined by their lovemaking.
Cecilia rolled off the opposite side of the bed and held out her hand and said, “Come on.”
Alice followed to find a fully stocked bathroom. Cosmetics of various kinds were available and they could have showered and changed into the outfits hanging in a closet if they had wanted. Both washed up with washcloths and repaired their makeup and hair before donning the clothes they had been wearing. Back down the secret staircase they were back in the living room when a discrete knock on the door signaled a servant to bring them coffee and cookies as they pretended to be talking.
Alice wasn’t surprised at the secret room as she realized Ken must have used it many times as well. She was surprised to find that Cecilia wanted to use it frequently. The four of them went out on Alice’s boat several times and none of them were indiscrete. The press were put off that there was no impropriety between the Senators and their new friends. Sometimes others were with them on their outings and other times the ‘friends’ were invited to dinner alone. No one thought anything of the intense friendship between the two Weaver sisters and the Senators.
Alice liked how much access she had to the Senator’s home. A couple of times Cecilia was late to their dinners and it allowed her to rifle through papers and personal items and learn more about the two of them. It was months before she found anything of interest and by then Cecilia was totally enamored of her, certain that Alice felt the same and would remain discrete.
Alice had gone up to their secret bedroom alone one night to wait for Cecilia while she stayed on the phone to someone. She had been in Washington the previous weeks and the two of them had looked forward to screwing each other’s brains out after weeks apart. Alice had brought along a really fine California wine for their evening and now she waited for Cecilia. She wasn’t of course still as she waited. She had seen the room many times; they had made love in it frequently over the months she had known the senators. She was certain Constance had been a frequent visitor as well if the ‘gifts’ she had received were any indication. She examined the expensive and tasteful décor and that was when she realized the discretely placed camera’s placed around the room, drilled into the walls, and hidden behind the mirrors. She didn’t make any indication that she recognized that they were there of course but she took a mental count as she went around the room looking at things and waiting for Cecilia.
That night well after she had left the Senator’s mansion she thought over what she had seen and realized. Not only could the Senator’s blackmail people, but the Senator’s themselves could be very vulnerable if their camera’s and the film footage were revealed to the public. She wondered at the angle they used their film for in this technological age of digital footage, their faces could be obscured very easily from the film. It could be very embarrassing for anyone caught in that vulnerable a position. She wondered how much footage they had of her and her sister. She decided she had to find out.
Knowing the layout of the mansion helped. The servants were incredibly discrete and also incredibly lax whenever the Senators were out of town on ‘official’ business. Sometimes Alice had to wonder what the public would think of their tax dollars and contributions dollars at work if they only knew how much of it was wasted on wine, women, and vacations. All legal of course but wasted nonetheless.
She waited for a time she knew that both Senators would be in Washington for a period of time before she made her move. Nothing in her manner or actions to Cecilia in the previous weeks would have indicated that anything was out of the ordinary so she knew that no one would be suspicious of her. She prepared carefully as she always did in all her actions. Her black sweat suit and its pockets carried everything she needed to get into the mansion. She let herself over the wall and knew from her walks with Cecilia where the security guards were as well as any monitors or laser beams as she made her way to the living room and the secret staircase. Soon she was in the room and using her lock picking tools had the locked door open in record time. She made her way to the nearest room next to this one and even she had to admit the video recording equipment was impressive. She took her time examining what was on their computers and the disks she found, many that ended up in her bag. She also erased that evening’s record of her coming through the bedroom before resetting the equipment to start recording in fifteen minutes after she had left. She realized there must be motion sensors in the room to set off and begin recording when one of their victims entered the room. As she was getting set to leave she realized there was one more disk she hadn’t viewed and she popped it into their computer and as she viewed the image she stiffened in shock. As she viewed it, it went on for quite a while and she realized it was one of Ken Edwards and her sister Constance, as it came to the end of their encounter she quickly suppressed her anger as she played the ending over and over again. Her fifteen minute window of time came and went as she watched this disk. She suddenly realized she had been in the video room much longer than she had intended. She heard the guards outside the room and froze as she stuffed this last disk in her pocket. The rest in the bag she had brought could be lost but not this last important disk. She listened carefully for them to go by and realized they must not check this particular room or the one next to it as they checked others. She breathed a sigh of relief as she looked around the room a final time and knew she had been thorough. She had erased all of the data on the computer but this was the only destruction she had wrought although she had been tempted to destroy it all. She had all their evidence and she reset the equipment for her fifteen minute window as she returned to the ‘tryst’ room as she was now thinking it. All the combs and other items in the bathroom that would carry her or her sisters DNA went into her bag before she used a spritz bottle carrying a chemical that would destroy further evidence and she thoroughly wet down every square inch of the bathroom and bedroom. She barely made it out of the bedroom before the motion sensors would begin recording again.
She nearly got caught by security as she realized she was in the mansion much longer than she had intended and the shift had changed. As it was she heard, “Hey, you, wait there,” before she pulled herself over a wall and sprinted away to where the unobtrusive car she had rented waited and rolled down the hill without lights before she started it and drove away. Her heart was beating hard as she made her way back to where she had rented the car pulling off her more obvious ‘night’ clothes from the sweat jacket and wriggled into something appropriate as she returned the car with a smile, glad that their night drop meant they really didn’t ‘see’ who she was. Her cash had assured there was no real record of Alice Weaver renting the car which was why she had chosen this particular rental place. Her Porsche was parked down the street and she got in wondering how many cameras had actually captured her today. She didn’t worry about it, there was no way they could tie her into the theft from the mansion.
When she was home she rapidly changed completely and threw the sweat suit into the washer after cleaning out her pockets holding the last disk thoughtfully. Making her way to her office she left it on the desk and made a phone call, no answer. She made another one, still no answer. Thoughtfully she made her way into her bathroom and showered as she thought methodically about what she might need to do under the shower’s soothing spray. She carefully made herself up and changed into comfortable and casual clothing as she thought more about what she might need to do. She was coldly and furiously angry and as she watched the disk one last time she placed all of the ones from her bag and this particular one carefully in her safe, locking it with an angry
twist as she set the traps and the alarm on it. She stared at it for moment before making her decisions.
Getting back into her Porsche she tried reaching Constance on her cell phone again, calling first Constance’s cell and then her house phone, no answer on either. She wondered how many days had passed from what she saw on the disk and what she would find at Constance’s place had passed. She hadn’t heard from her in a couple of days but that wasn’t out of the ordinary, they weren’t tied at the hip like other sisters, but she was STILL her sister! As she made her way into the exclusive community that Constance lived in they waved her by the guard shack but then they probably assumed she was Constance with the nearly identical looks and the nearly identical Porsche. Using her key she let herself into the mini-mansion that was made to look like a Renaissance home, something that could and would be found in Paris and remembered with a wry grin how annoyed Constance was that she, Alice had a key to her place but that Constance didn’t have one to hers.
She looked around the place and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Ultra-modern and ultra-expensive furnishings still tastefully took up the décor of the place. For some reason these didn’t annoy Alice like they usually did. She actually didn’t notice them as she made her way through the house. She went almost directly to the bedroom where she saw what she pretty much thought she would. There lay Constance in an unnatural position, her face black from having been dead for several days. Alice was not surprised but she went through the motions of touching her sisters corpse, touching her neck for a pulse that she knew would not be there and shaking the body for ‘effect’ before reaching for the house phone and dialing 911.
“Nine one one Emergency, what’s your Emergency,” a cold dispassionate voice came over the line.
In an appropriately upset voice Alice responded, “My sister,” she sobbed for effect. “She’s dead, I just found her…” she subsided into tears, some of them actually real.
“Ma’am did you say your sister is dead?” the dispassionate voice repeated back to her with no emotion.
Alice didn’t answer. She let the phone fall. She knew her not answering; the dead but open line would achieve the same results as anything she could say. She stared at her sister’s dead body for a moment as she began to thoroughly look around the bedroom. Nothing seemed disturbed and she realized her sister had been unceremoniously thrown on the bed. Whoever it had been had delivered the corpse and nothing more. She waited for what seemed an eternity before she heard the sirens and a banging on the front door. She went and let the police in.
“She’s in there,” she gestured towards the bedroom appropriately and convincingly despondent.
What greeted the officers had both of them swallowing hard to keep their dinner’s down and to keep from despoiling the crime scene. What had once been a beautiful woman was now black and actually smelling; she had been dead several days. The unnatural angle of her head and neck indicated how she had died but they couldn’t be certain until they investigated. One of them turned to question the sister. What he saw was obviously an identical twin to the victim and in shock. She stood there holding herself and it was apparent she had been crying.
“Ma’am, may I speak with you?” he offered gently.
She looked up at him with a hollow eyed look and nodded and went into the immaculate living room and sat down.
“Could you tell me who you are and what you found?”
Alice already had it all rehearsed in her head but in no way could he tell that as she told him that she hadn’t heard from her sister in a few days and something had compelled her to call her repeatedly tonight and when she didn’t answer to come over. Alice knew when they ran the phone records of both her sisters’ cell and house phone they would see her calls anyway so it was certainly believable. She also knew that calls to the Senator would come up and there would be questions asked. She hoped their alibies would be just as foolproof. She didn’t care what the police found, she, Alice would take care of the results, not them.
The police took her statement and she had to repeat it to another investigator when he got there. Alice knew it was a way to see if she was lying or there were any holes in her statement. She also knew she was a lot smarter than either of the cops she spoke to and they wouldn’t tie her into any of this. Her sister Constance Weaver had been killed several days ago and NOT in her mansion. From the look on her face underneath the rigormortus Alice knew that she had died unpleasantly. From what she knew and the police didn’t, she also knew that she would have to plan carefully in the coming days, weeks, and possibly months.
Alice didn’t move from the couch until late the next morning when they took her sister out in a body bag on a stretcher. By then she knew her sister would be the morning news. She saw quite a crowd outside with all the police cars, the ambulance, and the coroner’s van. She was surprised that with all the exclusivity of the community that the local television stations had been allowed in, but then not really, cash greased a lol of palms. She had used her time to think about her next actions beyond the funeral she must plan. Her sister and she while not really close had been sisters and her death would be avenged, especially as she alone knew how her sister had died and who had done it.
After many persistent and in depth questionings by the police they let her in peace. Alice asked and received permission to go through her sister’s desk and look for her will. She found it where she thought she would, her sister wasn’t as thorough as she was but she was at least neat and organized. Nothing she read in the will before she turned it over to the police surprised her. It all essentially left it all to Alice since there was no one else. Alice left soon afterwards after she assured the police that she was fine to drive. She went home and found cameras and reporters around her own condo. Not saying a word to them she made her way inside and closed off the world from her and her thoughts. She made herself a meal before heading upstairs. She thought about viewing the disks once again and then dismissed it from her mind, she needed her sleep if she was going to be in top form.
She woke to the phone ringing off the hook. Her answering machine full and she saw her cell phone was blinking. Apparently the news was out and friends and enemies were calling with their condolences. Constance had been well known and very social. The funeral would be well attended and most notably by their new ‘friends’ the Senators. Alice’s yellow gold eyes narrowed in contemplation of that. She wished she had been a fly on the wall when the Senator’s had been told.
“They found her,” Ken told Cecilia quietly as they were in their adjoining offices in Washington well away from Capitol Hill.
“Just say nothing; she was nothing more than a friend. They have no reason to suspect…” she answered and then left off as a knock sounded on the door. “Yes?” she called.
“Ma’am you might want to turn on Channel 9?” an aide told her as she nodded and reached for the channel changer.
“Good friend of Senator’s Edwards, the married couple from California,” the news commentator was saying.
“Good Lord, it made the news here,” Ken ejaculated as he stared and listened.
They told how one Constance Weaver a three time widow from California had been found strangled in her Brentwood mansion and an investigation had begun into her apparent murder.
Ken and Cecilia exchanged a meaningful look and dismissed it.
Alice planned the funeral with her usual meticulous care. It would have to wait a good week while they did an autopsy on the murdered body and continued their investigation, finding nothing. She already had her answers to what had killed her sister and where. They already knew the body had been moved and that she had not died in her own home but been dumped there. Nothing they told Alice surprised her, she pretended alarm and amazement at all their ‘news’ or it would have looked suspicious. She acted the appropriate part of a grieving sister.
“What do you think Al?” one detective asked the other after one of the countless interviews with the sister.
“Think she had anything to do with her sister’s murder?” he asked as he acknowledged what his partner had said.
“Naw, she loved her, finding her like that must have been quite a shock,” they dismissed her other odd behaviors as part of her shock.
Alice knew that nothing she had done or how she had behaved would arouse suspicions of her. Although appropriately shocked and dismayed over her sister’s death, there were certain things she could not hide. A certain coldness that permeated her being and could not be hidden behind her artificial behavior over her sister’s death, fortunately human nature being what it is made these ‘mistakes’ seem to be part of her shock over the death. It gave her a buffer that could well have directed an investigation closer into her whereabouts and lifestyle. Instead she was thought to be an investor and a wealthy woman and nothing more. She quietly closed her sister’s accounts and transferred the funds out of the country before the banks and government could even find the monies and tax them or freeze them. Her sister’s main spending accounts she didn’t touch and wouldn’t until it had all gone through probate. She saw no reason to let on about the other millions of dollars that quietly disappeared. The houses her sisters owned of course would be sold but not until well after the funeral and probate. The will was clear and there was no way anyone could dispute it but it would take time.
Alice thought it was interesting that neither of the Senators had called to express their condolences to their ‘friend.’ A coldly dispassionate bouquet of flowers and a generic card were all she received. They made no attempt to reach her otherwise in her ‘grief.’ She filed this information away and wondered if they had realized the theft from their mansion here in California yet.
Malice Masterpieces Page 13