Merciless Legacy: Merciless Murder - A Thrilling Closed Circle Mystery Series

by Tikiri Herath

  “The only person I can imagine getting poison letters is Barry,” said Jim.

  “Why?” I asked, though I had a pretty good inkling.

  “He can get real nasty when he’s had too much, which is pretty much every day. He’s got a mean streak. Secretly, I think everyone wishes he’d just drop dead and save us all this misery.” He paused. “But I can’t imagine anyone trying to hurt the doctor or Mrs. Robinson.”

  “No one?” I asked with a sigh. “You know, Jim, ever since I got here, I felt like this house holds too many secrets.”

  Jim looked away, that evasiveness coming over him again.

  “Anything else you’d like to share?” said Tetyana in an impatient voice.

  Jim looked up. “You’re not cops?”

  We shook our heads.

  He let out a sigh.

  “Look, I don’t know anything about these letters. I know nothing about that wire on the steps. And I have no idea what happened to Doctor Fulton and Mrs. Robinson. I just keep my head down and do my job, okay?”

  Tetyana and I nodded.

  “You saw those horses?” he said.

  “What about them?” I said.

  “They’re not Lisa’s. She’s allergic to animals, so she never comes here.”

  “Do the owners rent your stables?”

  Jim shook his head.

  “They’re not ours. We don’t let them out because... because they’ve been kidnapped.”

  Tetyana let out a low whistle.

  “Kidnapped?” I raised an eyebrow. This was a night full of surprises.

  “These aren’t just any horses, you know,” continued Jim, fidgeting in his seat. “They’re thoroughbred racehorses.”

  “How much are they worth?” asked Tetyana.

  “I dunno. One day I heard Lisa say they had a buyer in Dubai or someplace like that. I heard something like a half a million dollars for four.”

  “Lisa has a horse-napping racket going on?” I said. “Lisa?”

  “It wasn’t her who came up with the idea,” Jim replied, his shoulders stooping again. “It was Pastor Graham who made her do it. He brought them over one day in a big trailer and asked us to hide them. No one questions him. I constructed the stable extension to the barn this summer, like he told me to.”

  “Haven’t the owners contacted the police? Aren’t they searching for them?”

  “They won’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they don’t want the horses to get hurt, and because...”

  He fell silent again.

  We waited.

  His face flushed when he spoke again.

  “Because he’s blackmailing us. All of us!”

  Suddenly it dawned on me.

  “The owners of these horses were your classmates, weren’t they?” I asked. “Graham’s victims from the past?”

  Jim nodded.

  “He threatened them, like he’s doing to me. That’s why they’ll never tell the police.”

  “Did this pastor fellow abuse Lisa and Barry when they were kids, too?” asked Tetyana.

  Jim shrugged and swallowed a sob.

  “Maybe Barry. Maybe that’s why he drinks so much. I dunno.”

  I remembered how the pastor had groped Katy at dinner our first night here. Maybe, I thought, he abused both little boys and little girls.

  Mrs. Robinson had been correct. This house held many mysteries, mysteries I wasn’t sure I could stomach any more. But I had a job to do. I pressed on.

  “Mrs. Robinson said they never went to school. Where did young Barry and Lisa meet the pastor?”

  “He came every weekend to give them lessons when they were kids. He was just a teenager back then. Their parents arranged for tutors because they were never around. Anyway, that’s what Lisa said once.”

  Even at a young age, Pastor Graham had found the perfect career that would give him access to young victims. What a sick creep.

  Tears rolled down Jim’s eyes, falling on the sawdust on the table.

  “We were just kids,” said Jim, his hands curling into fists and his face red in embarrassment or anger. “When we grew older and left school, he followed us. He found us and told us he’d share our secret if we didn’t listen to him. He took pictures every time. We have no choice—”

  He stopped abruptly and put his head on the table.

  Tetyana and I stared at this grown man who was now crying like a child.

  Perhaps for the first time in his life, he was releasing all the trauma from his horrific childhood.

  Chapter Forty-eight

  “What the hell is going on over there?” said Tetyana.

  We had just stepped outside the barn. Jim was shutting the door behind him when Tetyana and I noticed the house.

  All three floors were lit up.

  I checked my watch. It was two in the morning.

  Is the entire household up?

  Only an hour ago, the manor had been plunged into darkness. I was sure everybody had trudged up to their rooms after the pastor had shooed them out of the dining room.

  “Stay behind me,” instructed Tetyana as she pulled out her weapon and slid into the shadows.

  I turned to Jim.

  “Any idea what’s going on?”

  He shrugged, looking as perplexed as we were. And scared.

  I pulled out my gun and gestured to Jim to follow me.

  Tetyana was already halfway down the driveway. I could see her silhouette slinking along the side of the house, moving toward the side door.

  My mind flashed to Katy.

  Our bedroom light was on, but I knew she had planned to stay up reading the diary. I felt the bedroom key in my pocket with relief. She was safe in there.

  I could hear Jim’s laborious breathing behind me. “Hurry!” I said, as I ran to catch up with Tetyana.

  Tetyana kicked the side door open, and I jumped in behind her.

  We spun around, guns aimed forward. But the kitchen was empty, though the lights had all been turned on.

  The row of dirty wine glasses had fallen to the floor from the counter and smashed into pieces. I moved away from the shards and pointed the mess out to Jim, so he wouldn’t step on it.

  Someone, I was sure, had been in such a hurry they’d knocked over the glasses.

  But something else was amiss.

  The knife block, the one with Mrs. Robinson’s red-handled designer kitchen knives, had been turned on its side. Two knives were missing.

  A muffled sound came from somewhere upstairs.

  “Katy?” I shouted out, my heart leaping to my mouth.

  The sound came again, like a soft thud against a wall.

  I didn’t wait another second. I whirled around and ran up the back stairwell, with Tetyana and Jim at my heels.

  “Katy?” I hollered as I ran up.

  “Watch for traps!” yelled Tetyana after me, but I barely heard her.

  As soon as we got to the top floor, my stomach turned queasy. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

  We quickened our pace.

  With every step closer to our room, my throat felt drier and my stomach more nauseous.

  “Frigging hell!” shouted Tetyana, breaking into a run.

  Our bedroom door had been flung open.

  I dashed after her.

  But Katy was no longer inside.

  “Katy!”

  “She struggled,” said Tetyana, surveying the room.

  Someone took her.

  The bedside lamp was lying on its side, and the plush toys had been scattered across the room. The comforter and bedsheet had been ripped away from the bed, like Katy had either flung them off to jump out, or someone else had done it before snatching her.

  I wanted to cry out, but my mouth seemed to have been clamped down. All I could hear was my heart pounding in my chest.

  Oh, my god, Katy. What happened? Where are you?

  I whirled around in one spot, hoping to spot her. I knew how ridiculous it would be
to think she was still in this compact room with no space to maneuver, let alone hide. But I kept looking.

  Tetyana was checking the windows. She rattled the latches to confirm they had remained locked. Katy couldn’t have disappeared through the window, I thought. They took her out the door.

  Who unlocked the door? And how?

  “Either someone had an extra key and got in,” said Tetyana, reading my mind, “or she opened the door and let someone in.”

  “She’d never let anyone in,” I said. “She’s smarter than that.”

  “Maybe someone pretended to be one of us.”

  “Impossible. Remember? She could barely walk.”

  As we were talking, Jim stepped up to the bedside table and straightened up the lamp. Then, he bent down and picked up a small object from under the bed.

  “Hey,” he said, waving it at us.

  “Katy’s phone!” I said, swiping it from him. It was locked, but finding it here confirmed she hadn’t left willingly. She’d never drop it and run out like that.

  Tetyana was examining the carpet near the bed, and for a moment, I wondered if she was looking for bloodstains.

  I tried in vain to not let wild thoughts of Katy being shot, stabbed, or worse, enter my head. I didn’t know what I’d do if she’d been hurt. But I needed a cool head to find her.

  I turned back to the bed.

  Something else was missing in this room. I scanned the space, racking my brain. Something bothered me, but I couldn’t put a finger to it.

  What is it?

  Think, woman, think.

  I stepped up to the bed and stripped the comforter and bedsheets. Then, I pulled away the fitted sheet on the mattress.

  “What are you looking for?” I heard Jim say behind me. Without answering him, I picked up a pillow, ripped off its cover and looked inside.

  Nothing.

  I threw the pillowcases on the naked mattress and turned around to see Jim and Tetyana staring at me.

  “The book,” I said to Tetyana. “It’s gone.”

  “What book?” asked Jim.

  The photocopied letters had disappeared too, together with the girl’s diary, but I wasn’t about to divulge any more information in front of him.

  As I surveyed the room, my fighting spirit grew stronger inside of me.

  My eyes narrowed, and I gritted my teeth. I raised my arm and aimed my weapon at Jim.

  He stared at me with a stunned expression on his face.

  “Do you know who took her? Do you?”

  He stepped back, shaking his head, arms raised in the air.

  “No, I never even knew she was gone... I have no idea... Please don’t....”

  “Asha,” I heard Tetyana say, but my eyes were on Jim.

  “I swear to god, if you had anything to do with Katy’s disappearance, I won’t hesitate to put a bullet through your head.”

  Chapter Forty-nine

  “Asha!”

  I turned around to see Tetyana leaning toward the entrance, her face taut, her ears and eyes on alert.

  “Second floor. Something is going on. Maybe Katy’s down there.”

  That was when I heard the low hum of people talking. I could feel the urgency in their voices.

  One voice got louder. It was Nancy. She was objecting to something, but it was hard to make out the words. Then Barry let out a deafening yell.

  Jim didn’t hesitate.

  Pushing me aside, he darted out the door.

  With a curse, I scooted after him, Tetyana right behind me. Jim scrambled down the stairs, calling Nancy’s name, panic tinged in his voice.

  Within seconds, Tetyana and I burst into the second-floor dining room after Jim.

  It seemed like everyone, except for Katy, was inside the dining room.

  They all turned and stared.

  We stared back.

  Jim ran up to his wife. She’d been standing by the table, looking like she was having a panic attack. She fell into Jim’s arms with a cry.

  That was when I saw it.

  In the same chair where Doctor Fulton had sat just a few hours ago, was Pastor Graham. His head was slumped over. Protruding from his back was a butcher's knife. It was the same red-handled knife I’d seen Nancy use in the kitchen to slice her meat.

  I stared at his body in shock.

  Even from where I was standing, I could see the deathly yellow pallor that had come over him.

  For the past hour, as Jim had shared his story with us, I’d been building a case against this despicable man. I’d been relishing the thought of outing a blackmailing pedophile who’d been terrorizing so many innocents.

  While I had no proof he was behind Mrs. Robinson’s or Doctor Fulton’s deaths, I was sure I’d find one. Plus, I had zero sympathy for this man who’d groped Katy at the dinner table.

  Pastor Graham had been my prime suspect.

  But now he was dead.

  This meant there was another killer in the house.

  I glanced around the room, my heart racing.

  It was like we’d walked into a room under a spell. Everyone was standing frozen in place, completely mute, shocked expressions on their faces.

  What’s going on in this mad, mad house?

  Tetyana marched up to the table. She reached over to the pastor’s wrist to feel his pulse, then holstered her weapon and bent down to scrutinize the knife wound in his back.

  She straightened up and didn’t say anything.

  She didn’t need to.

  I slipped my gun into my vest pocket, feeling numb. This made three deaths in twenty-four hours.

  No one said a word.

  They were all staring at the pastor’s body, as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

  And now Katy’s missing. Where is she? Who took her? What happened?

  My mind whirled, and my stomach churned.

  Did Katy have something to do with this? Did the pastor try to attack her, and she fought back? But she’d never stab a man in the back.

  I looked around the room.

  Barry was in striped blue pajamas, his hair standing straight up as usual, his bloodshot eyes looking like he hadn’t slept in days and his bushy eyebrows making him appear more menacing than ever.

  There was a bruise on his left eye and a scarlet mark on his face. I wondered if he’d fallen down and scraped himself in a drunken stupor and we hadn’t even noticed.

  I had expected him to be frothing with fury, but the man standing by the liquor cabinet was a frightened one. The third death had finally subdued him.

  Lisa was by her chair, looking down at her hands. Her hair was standing in clumps, like she’d forgotten to smoothen it down when she got out of bed. I noticed she kept her face down, staring at the table, like she couldn’t bear to see the dead man.

  Charles, one half of our hiking couple, was standing by the door, clutching the wall for support, still in his jeans and T-shirt, as if he’d never gone to bed. He looked pale, like the blood had drained from his face.

  Where’s Caril?

  I looked from one person to the next.

  “Anyone know how this happened?” I asked, hearing the strain in my own voice.

  Silence.

  “Who found Pastor Graham?” I asked again.

  “I didn’t see a thing,” said Charles finally.

  I turned to Barry.

  “Me too,” he replied in a flustered voice. “Never seen nothing...”

  How fast a coward falls.

  I turned to Lisa, but she wasn’t looking up.

  “What about you?” I said.

  She shook her head and looked down, her lips pursed. I doubted I was going to make her talk right now.

  I turned around, looking everyone in the eye.

  “Katy fell and twisted her ankle on the stairs and couldn’t walk, but now she’s disappeared.”

  They stared back at me, blank expressions on their faces.

  I raised my voice. “Did anyone see her?”
r />   No one replied.

  I pulled my gun out.

  “Answer me!”

  Charles and Nancy recoiled at the sight of my weapon. Lisa shook her head while Barry turned a bewildered face to me.

  “You mean the redhead?” he said.

  “Yes, the redhead,” I said through gritted teeth. The one you tried to slap around this morning.

  “Never seen the wench.”

  I wanted to pistol whip the man, but I knew that would only make things worse. Besides, we needed him to talk.

  I took a deep breath in to rein in the anger threatening to explode from me. I turned to the room.

  “If any of you have harmed even a hair on Katy, I swear—”

  “It was her!”

  I whirled around. Barry was pointing an accusing finger at Nancy.

  Nancy raised her face from Jim’s chest, wiped her eyes and gave him a scared look.

  “Didn’t hear no one stumbling down the stairs,” said Barry, “but I heard her. She’s the one who banged on my door.”

  “She banged on my door too,” said Charles.

  Lisa nodded, still keeping her face down. “Mine too,” she said in a quiet voice.

  All eyes turned to Nancy.

  “She did him in!” screeched Barry. “She’s the one!”

  Chapter Fifty

  “I didn’t kill him!” shrieked Nancy.

  Jim pulled her in closer.

  “You have the wrong person,” he said, his face turning a tinge of purple. “Stop picking on her.”

  “It was her, I tell you!” bellowed Barry.

  “You’re lying!” yelled Jim.

  I turned to Nancy, who was shaking in his arms.

  “How about you tell us how you found him?” I asked.

  She looked up, her eyes red.

  “I know nothing about Katy falling down the stairs, but I heard loud noises downstairs just a few minutes ago and came out to see what it was.”

  “Noises?” I said. “Like what?”

  “Like people having a bad fight. It was so bad it made the hair on my arms stand up.”

  “Was it Pastor Graham’s voice?”

  “I thought I heard a woman, but maybe it was him....” She gave a petrified side glance at the dead body at the table.