Officer Jensen and Jim were on the floor next to her. Jim had pulled his T-shirt off and was ripping it into strips to bandage her leg, while the officer was putting pressure on her wound to stop the bleeding.
She was still alive.
Jim took over Lisa, and Jensen stepped back. He pulled out a pair of rubber gloves from his pocket and once gloved, bent down to pick up the bloodied knife and slip it into a plastic bag.
“Officer Jensen,” I called out, “check her pockets.”
He gave me a questioning look.
“I think there’s something in there you’d want to see.”
Without interfering with Jim’s work, Jensen reached into Lisa’s dress pockets. There was nothing on the left pocket but he found something on the right.
He pulled out a crumpled beige envelope and held it to the light.
“There are at least four more of those,” I said.
Jensen nodded and put it into another plastic bag. He didn’t look surprised at his discovery. Something told me he already knew what that envelope contained.
A whimper in the corner made me turn. It was Victoria, slouched against the wall, hugging herself, staring at her mother in shock.
I walked over to her.
“Hey, Victoria?” I said. “You’ll be okay. She can’t hurt you anymore.”
She gave me a hazy look, like she had hardly registered what I had said. I pulled her away from the wall.
“Come. Let’s get out of this place. We need to have someone look at the cut on your neck.”
Like a zombie, she followed me to the door where Tetyana and Katy were waiting.
“Ready?” Tetyana said, taking Katy by the arm.
I put my arm around Katy’s shoulder and gestured to Victoria to follow us.
Leaving the men behind with Lisa, we stumbled out of the dank basement and back up the stairwell.
It was a relief to leave behind this torture chamber that had haunted a little girl so many years ago.
Chapter Sixty-two
“Ricin?” I said.
“That’s what the lab said,” said Officer Jensen, flipping through his notepad. “I have the preliminary report back at the office. We found fingerprints on one letter. Lisa wasn’t as careful as I thought.”
It had been a hunch, but we now had confirmation of how Mrs. Robinson had died.
This also confirmed Mrs. Robinson had shared the original letters with Jensen before we came over, albeit reluctantly, I supposed. No wonder he had wanted to stop us from coming to this house.
“So, it’s these beans?” said Nancy, pointing to the broken jar lying on its side next to the window where Barry had smashed it only a few hours ago. “They look pretty. Harmless.”
The officer reached over and picked one up.
“Castor beans,” he said, rolling it on his palm. “If I had to guess, Lisa made the ricin powder in her room and stuck it in her letters. No one knew what she was doing.”
“They’ll find a mini lab with a stash of medicine bottles when they search her room,” I said. “She even has a mortar and pestle to smash those beans to powder.”
“Killer beans,” said Tetyana. “Sure you want to touch those?”
Jensen promptly flicked the bean away.
Next to me, Victoria shuddered and pulled her blanket around her closer.
We had all gathered around the fireplace in the kitchen.
Around us and above us, we could hear heavy feet stomping all over the place. A team of detectives and officers were swarming the house, taking photos and processing the three dead bodies.
Jensen had brought us to the kitchen to take our statements and keep us out of their way.
Katy was sitting in the rocking chair near the fireplace, her leg elevated on a cushion, nursing a hot cup of chamomile tea. It was going to take time for her to recover from her ordeal, longer than it would take for her beautiful hair to grow back again.
The first responders had cleaned and bandaged her arm, and had administered painkillers, but she was still hurting. I was thankful the knife wound and her sprained ankle had been the worst of her injuries.
Victoria had escaped with a cut to her neck where Lisa had pushed the knife in. The red mark looked nasty, but I could see she was having a harder time coming to terms with the shocking secrets she’d learned in the basement than any physical wound she’d have incurred during that final melee.
I wasn’t sure if anyone could fully recover from that kind of past.
“I never expected Lisa to be so...” Katy stopped to search for the right word. “So innovative.”
“Bah,” said Jensen. “She could have easily got the ricin recipe off the Internet and convinced the pastor to get her the ingredients. Nothing enterprising in this.”
“She’s seriously deranged to slash your hair like that,” said Nancy to Katy. “I knew she was a little off, but this is crazy stuff, like that horrible hand-chopping woman from Misery.”
I shuddered to think how much worse it could have been.
“She said it was to punish me,” said Katy, sadly pulling at the ends of what was left of her hair. “She said I needed to learn a lesson because I fought back when she came to get me.”
Victoria shook her head.
“She used to take a scissor to my hair too, when I was a kid. She knew I liked to have my hair long. It was her way of punishing me.”
“Oh, my gosh,” said Nancy. “That’s sickening.”
“That woman knew exactly what she was doing,” said Tetyana. “I’d say all her moves are calculated for effect.” She turned to Jensen. “You’ll have your hands full with her in your jails.”
Jensen sighed. “My first arrest, to tell you the truth. Good thing I only have drunk tanks, so she’s going to a bigger free hotel, courtesy of the next county. I’ll owe them one.”
“What about Doctor Fulton?” I asked. “How did she kill him?”
“DCI Peters says they suspect cyanide in his water glass. She probably put it in when you weren’t looking. They’ll be checking the glasses at the lab. Or whatever is left of them.”
“Cyanide?” I said, sitting up. “I smelled one of Lisa’s bottles in her room and I was sure it had a faint hint of almond.”
“Are you saying we’ll find your fingerprints on that bottle?” said Jensen, his eyes narrowed.
I nodded, sheepishly. “I didn’t know. I thought it was baking extract.”
“Baking extract?” said Jensen, blowing a raspberry. “Good thing for you Lisa’s talking.”
I was glad too.
The past few hours had been a whirlwind.
Tetyana had subdued Barry and locked him up in his room, and Jim had kept true to his promise and had strengthened the footbridge for the first responders to walk across. When they finally came through, they’d arrested Lisa alive, with a bullet lodged in her thigh.
Falcon Hill’s fire truck, ambulance, and the local sheriff’s vehicle were parked on the other side of the gully. Behind them were a half a dozen squad cars from the neighboring counties that had come to aid Jensen.
An emergency crew was constructing a larger makeshift bridge so the responders could carry a stretcher with Lisa to the other side and into the ambulance.
I didn’t care if she came out of her surgery dead or alive. All I cared about was she had confessed. It had taken little for Barry to spill the beans after that. And now, a judge and jury would decide their fate.
Whatever happened, the house already felt lighter with those two out of it.
“This place will be swarming with investigators for the next few days,” said Jensen. “Y’all will have to find another place to stay. There’s a motel in town with empty rooms if you need.”
“You tried to discourage us from coming here on the first day, didn’t you?” I said, looking the officer in the eye. “It was you who slashed our tire, wasn’t it?”
Jensen sat up and slapped his notebook shut.
“No, ma’am. That
would be illegal.”
“It was you,” I said. “You just can’t admit it.”
“You got cold feet,” said Tetyana, giving him a wink. “You jammed the spike belt as soon as it went out, so it only cut into our back tire. Couldn’t follow through, could you? You knew what you were doing was wrong.”
Officer Jensen glared at us, but I could see a hint of guilt in his eyes. He’d been acting out of desperation, I gathered.
“When Mrs. Robinson showed me the letters,” he replied in a sober voice, “she said it wasn’t a big deal. She was embarrassed. But I knew it was a serious affair. I knew this wasn’t going to come to a good end.”
He paused and shook his head.
“She told me she didn’t want to bother the police, and she was going to get outside help. Said she had this secret number to call for help. I tried my best to stop her. Told her what she needed was proper police help, not some...”
He stopped and glowered my way.
“Private investigators who saved Victoria’s life and got Lisa to confess?” piped up Katy.
“We’re talking triple homicides here, folks,” said Jensen, his shoulders stooping. “This was a dangerous game. Besides, you didn’t stop it all from happening, did you?”
“Neither did you,” pointed out Tetyana.
Jensen shrugged.
“The point is, you need to leave these things to the professionals. Going around pretending to be Sherlock. Touching things you shouldn’t have. Should have called me as soon as you saw Mrs. Robinson was sick.”
“We didn’t know what was going on then, and when we did, the phones were jammed,” I said. “Anyway, if it wasn’t for us, who knows what else could have happened here?”
Jim, who’d been listening in quietly, let out a sigh.
“Probably Nancy and me dead and gone too. I, for one, am happy you came. You saved our lives.”
“More tea?” said Nancy, walking over with a teapot.
“Yes, please,” said Jim, reaching out with his mug and giving his wife a sheepish look.
He had a lot of explaining to do and, thankfully, Nancy was still on talking terms with him. I wondered if he would ever tell her his full story, or if he’d keep it a secret for the rest of his life. At least the man who’d terrorized him was now gone for good.
“I sort of feel bad for them,” said Nancy, pulling a chair next to her husband and sitting down. “They had rough childhoods. Their parents abandoned them. They were left to fend for themselves in this big house in the middle of—”
“Poor little rich kids,” said Tetyana with a snort.
“Not an excuse for murder,” said Jensen. “I know folks who grew up in worse conditions. They didn’t grow up to become serial killers.”
“What about the horses?” I said, turning to Jim. “What’s going to happen to them?”
“We’ll send them to their owners. I’ll take care of them till then.”
“Do you know who they belong to?”
“Phillip Tanner. He used to be a tenor in my choir. Was a talented singer too. Then he hit eleven and stopped coming to rehearsals. He was changed....”
He stirred as if to shake old cobwebs off. He cleared his throat and turned to the police officer.
“I have his address. He used to race the horses at Belmont Park every year. I guess they’re still good for a few more races. I’ve done my best to take care of them while they were here.”
Jensen scribbled a note on his notepad and rubbed his eyes.
“I’ll be doing paperwork on this case for weeks.”
“Speaking of paperwork,” I said, looking at my friends.
Katy nodded. Tetyana looked away. She’d finally agreed to my proposal, but I knew she felt there were better ways to help.
I turned to Victoria.
“This house now belongs to you.”
She looked at me in surprise. Katy pulled out the codicil from her pocket and handed it to her.
“What’s this?” asked Victoria.
“Your grandmother was an eccentric woman,” I said. “This codicil means this house now belongs to my company. Our attorney in New York just confirmed its legitimacy.”
Victoria’s face fell.
“But we’ve decided there’s no one better suited to inherit this home than you,” I continued. “As soon as we get things sorted out with the lawyers, this title will be reverted to you.”
Victoria looked at me in shock. Then, a small smile broke out on her face.
“You’re not joking, are you?”
“We don’t joke,” said Tetyana in a firm voice.
I sighed in relief. She’d argued and pushed back. If we took ownership, she’d said, more children in need would get a place to sleep. She was right. But that was a decision for Victoria to make when she was ready. Not us.
I was glad Tetyana was coming around. I knew she would.
“Is this for real?” squealed Victoria, unfolding the codicil.
“It’s your childhood home,” I said.
Katy reached over and squeezed her arm.
“Better believe it, hun.”
“Hey, Victoria,” I said. “My only suggestion is to keep Jim and Nancy on here to help you.” I turned to the couple. “That is, if you want to stay.”
Jim opened his mouth and shut it, and turned to Nancy.
We all waited.
After a long pause, Nancy nodded. “That would be good. I don’t want to go back to town.”
Victoria put her palms together. She looked like she wanted to jump up and embrace Nancy but was restraining herself. “I’d really like that. Thank you, Nancy and Jim. This can be your home too.”
Jim scanned the kitchen and turned to Victoria. “This place needs a lot of work. I can spruce it up for you, if you’d like.”
“I’d love that!”
“I’ll clean up the cabin too,” said Jim. I noticed his eyes turn down, as if he was searching for something at his feet. “I’ll get rid of the old bath salts in the washroom. Flush it down the toilet.”
I jerked back in surprise to hear that. Everyone gave him a confused look but Tetyana’s face remained stoic.
I gave a discreet glance at Nancy and saw her shoulders relax. A flicker of relief crossed her face. So, she had known about his drug abuse all along.
I turned to Jim who was now watching his wife, a sad look on his face, as if he was remorseful for the hurt he’d put on her. Jim would need time to adjust and those two would have some work to do, but at least they were heading in the right direction.
“Excuse me, Sheriff?”
We turned around.
It was one of the junior officers who’d come with the investigation team.
“Someone’s locked up in a third-floor bedroom upstairs. Can’t find the key. Man’s been banging about for a while now.”
“Oh!” I said, pulling out the room key from my pocket. “I totally forgot about Charles. I’m so sorry—”
Before I could finish, Victoria swiped the key from my hand and hurled it into the fire.
“Whoa!” said the constable, scrambling after it.
“What did you do that for?” asked Jensen, turning angrily to Victoria.
“Won’t hurt him to stay in there for a little while longer,” she said. “When you do get him out, would you escort him off my premises, please?”
My premises.
I smiled at those words. Good for you, Victoria. If anyone deserved a life of freedom and peace, it had to be her.
Victoria got up from her chair and plucked out the diary she’d been keeping hidden under her blanket. Without any warning, she stepped up to the fireplace and chucked the book in too.
Jensen swore. “For crying out loud, that could be evidence.”
Victoria shrugged. “I think you have enough to make a case against Lisa.”
Shaking his head, Jensen got up to help the constable open Charles’ bedroom door, leaving us alone in the kitchen.
We huddle
d close together, watching the fire flicker and grow, eating the pages of Victoria’s old diary.
A ping from my phone made me look down at my lap. I picked up my mobile to read a text from Peace.
“Madame Bouchard’s lawyer confirmed the case is now closed. Check the orphanage account for a generous donation transfer on Monday.”
Madame Bouchard had been serious after all.
I couldn’t wait to share the news with my friends, but now was not the time.
I leaned back in my chair, feeling like I had gone full circle.
When I had met Madame Bouchard decades ago, I’d been a scared, orphaned girl, desperate for help, pleading for her to give me a break. And now, I’d paid it forward by sticking to my promise to help sort out her own family affairs.
Knowing her, I was certain she’d approve of my methods, as unconventional as they might be. I knew she’d be happy her granddaughter was a free woman now and would take on the ownership of her childhood home.
Justice had been restored. That was all that mattered.
I leaned forward to warm my hands over the fire, wondering where in the world Madame Bouchard was going to send us next.
The pages in Victoria’s diary were shriveling up one by one, disintegrating into hot cinders. It was cathartic to watch the fire devour the past.
Through the crackling of the fire logs, I could hear another message.
Our job here was done.
It was time for us to head home and rejoin our own families.
Back in New York
Chapter Sixty-three
Katy’s phone rang, silencing Tetyana and me in mid-argument about which ramp to get off the highway.
In the backseat, behind us, Katy fumbled to turn her phone on.
“Hey, sweetie,” came her voice, guarded, but with a tinge of hope.
Tetyana and I exchanged a quick glance.
That had to be Peace.
“No, I’m okay, everything’s fine,” said Katy, her mouth turned to the phone. “How’s Chantelle doing today?”
I tried not to listen in, but I couldn’t help it.
Katy and Peace weren’t just my close friends, but, like Tetyana, Luc, Win, and everyone else who had joined our missions over the years, they were my family. When they hurt, I hurt too.
Merciless Legacy: Merciless Murder - A Thrilling Closed Circle Mystery Series Page 28