Abigail didn’t sound impressed. “It’s all for show. She clearly doesn’t cook.”
“Daniel’s been helping me to sort out the financials. If he and Sylvia are together, why would he do that?”
Abigail slapped off the light and brushed past Nora. “Maybe he’s trying to keep you from finding something that incriminates her.”
Could he be protecting Sylvia? But if he loved her, why didn’t he just give her $400,000? For someone with his resources, that wouldn’t be much.
Next up was the dining room. Abigail found a dimmer switch and turned it up. “Oh my. My, oh my.”
The dining room table was a mass of wrought iron and glass. The chairs twisted in bizarre shapes like torture devices. Dinner in this room would be about as much fun as an evening in the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition.
Abigail tsked. “I suppose Sylvia thinks this passes for art. She’s obviously trying too hard.”
“Petal said Sylvia worked for someone powerful. With World Petro behind him, Daniel is certainly powerful.”
Abigail stared at the dining table as if considering how to destroy it. “The only thing worth keeping in this room is the chandelier. That’s quite lovely, actually.”
She brushed her hands as if to get rid of the room and strode down the hall. “Let’s check upstairs.”
“No,” Nora said. “This has gone too far already.”
Abigail waved her off. “We need to make sure Petal isn’t hiding up there. Besides, I want to see the bedrooms.”
“Big mistake,” Nora grumbled to Abbey. He sat in the foyer watching her.
Abigail trotted up the stairs, scowling at the abstract oil paintings and shaking her head. She reached the landing halfway up and her phone jangled.
Abigail held it up and frowned. “Why is Cole calling me?” She answered and her face lit up like Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve. She pulled the phone away and said to Nora, “My knight in shining armor. His battery died but he was dying to talk to me.” She turned her back on Nora and spoke into the phone. “I’m so sorry!”
Nora stopped several steps down. Abbey hadn’t moved.
“Just a minute, dear.” Abigail pulled the phone from her ear. “I need to take this in privacy. You check upstairs and I’ll wait for you in the Jeep.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Abigail lowered her eyebrows. “Private conversation, Nora.” She skipped down the stairs, knocking Nora to the wall.
Nora watched Abigail hurry outside. Abbey sat at the base of the stairs. Once more Nora eyed the front door and escape. “Did I mention what a mistake this is?” She said to Abbey. The golden retriever wisely kept his own counsel. She climbed the stairs, feeling the weight of the silence grow more dense with each step. “Abbey, come.”
Abbey gave her the I-don’t-wanna attitude.
“Stop being lazy,” Nora said. “Come.”
Reluctantly, he got to his feet and climbed after her.
A strange odor crept into her nostrils like a hairy caterpillar. Was Sylvia’s toilet clogged? But no, it didn’t smell like bad sewer. Whatever it was, it stunk.
The hallway ran the length of the foyer, looking down on the chandelier—now that Nora noticed, it really was gaudy. To the right a few doors opened onto dark rooms.
The slightly worn path in the thick pile led to the left. Must be the master bedroom.
Nora leaned down and scratched Abbey’s head. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And yet, her feet carried her down the hall, however slowly.
The stench was like thick Yuck Chowder.
Nora glanced behind her to make sure Abbey followed close behind.
She snaked her hand around the wall to the dark room and felt for the light.
41
At first the muted light of the bedroom didn’t reveal much. Sylvia must keep the lights dim in here to set the mood. The bedroom was only slightly smaller than the great room. The section closest to the door contained a sitting area with a fireplace. A television the size of a child’s wading pool hung on the wall.
The massive four-poster bed jutted from the far corner of the room and black dressers accented the room. Even with all the furniture, someone could still perform a gymnastics floor routine. Who needed this much space?
The covers bunched at the foot of bed and spilled onto the floor. The carpet seemed to have a splotchy pattern in a dark color by the bathroom door. Odd.
A nightlight cast a glow from the bathroom across the room. Sylvia was not the neatest person because she’d left shoes and clothes strewn on the floor.
Abbey whined. He’d retreated to the stairs.
Nora found the light switch and toggled it up. The wall sconces brightened, as did the chandelier. How many crystal chandeliers does it take to please Sylvia?
Nora stepped tentatively into the room.
Dear god.
Nora gasped and stepped back, running into the doorjamb.
She wanted to run but couldn’t make her feet move.
What she’d thought was a pattern on the rug so obviously wasn’t.
Blood. So much blood. Crimson splashes on the wall by the bathroom. Deep ruby on the white carpet. The smell. It made horrible sense.
Scuffed black men’s shoes with thick leather soles, black socks and the bottom of black trousers made up what she’d thought was a pile of Sylvia’s clothes.
Nora gagged. The walls and white sheet of the bed resembled a macabre Jackson Pollock interpretation of red, with enough lighter colored chunks to add texture and depth.
Nora spun and raced down the hallway. Abbey barked. Nora lunged into the closest bathroom and made it in time to vomit into the toilet. Shaking and slimed with cold sweat, she braced herself on the counter and turned on the tap. She rinsed her mouth, her legs trembling and threatening to give out.
She had to go back. The shoes and pants gave Nora an awful sense of recognition.
Nora knelt and buried her face in Abbey’s fur. She hesitated a moment to calm down enough to force herself return to the room. She pulled herself up and step by awful step, made her way back to the bedroom. She stopped in the doorway, staring at the black shoes.
Nora needed to see around the foot of the bed. She swallowed but her mouth felt like a desert.
Step. Step. Bit by bit the body came into view. Dress pants covered the legs. A white shirt pulled out of the waistband over a soft, pudgy belly.
One more step revealed the entire body.
Nora held her hand over her mouth. “Oh, no.” The head had been blown away. Bits of it stuck to the wall and the side of the bed. White pieces of skull with wisps of black hair clumped amid globs of bloody brain.
Nora backed away. Tears ran down her face and she gagged again. There was no face, but she’d seen enough to know it was Mark Monstain.
A voice squeaked from the dark corner of the room next to a tall armoire. “Nora?”
She whirled around, heart in her throat.
The wad of fabric and hair wedged between a dresser and the corner of the room mewled. “Oh Nora.”
Nora rushed to Petal. “What happened? Are you all right?”
Scarlet slashes marked Petal’s cheeks, matching the rings around her eyes. Tears streamed down her face. “Sylvia and Daniel. They were here.”
Nora kept her face turned away from the gruesomeness at the other end of the bedroom. Waves of toxic fear sloshed inside her. She reached for Petal and tugged at her to stand. Together they lumbered to the hallway. “Did Daniel do this? Is he still here?”
Petal shook her head. “I don’t know. Mark was dead when I got here.”
Nora kept her arm around Petal as they moved toward the stairs. “Where did they go?”
Petal trembled against Nora as they descended one stair at a time. “They went to the Trust. Sylvia wanted to set the coordinates. They’re going to send a beam at dawn.”
Abbey squeezed around them and plodded down the stairs to the foyer.
“Sylvia’s no
t gathering data on climate change, is she”
Petal shook her head.
They made it to the foyer and both sat on the bottom step, huddled together. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Petal swiped her sleeve across her nose. “The beam is set at a refractory angle to strike in Ecuador.”
Now it made sense. “Daniel isn’t really trying to protect the rainforest. Why are they targeting Ecuador?”
Petal shivered despite all her layers. “The beam will start an earthquake. That will trigger the volcanoes and they’ll erupt. They’ll wipe out whole cities. After that happens, the government will sell the oil rights so the companies will pump money into the country and they can rebuild.”
Heat surged over Nora’s body and her ears rang. “They’re staging a massive natural disaster so World Petro can get richer? They can’t do that.”
Petal stared at her with round, watery eyes. “They can.”
Nora jerked her to her feet and noticed she wore damp wool socks and no shoes. “We have to stop them!”
She pulled Petal to the door and reached for the knob. A movement through the side windows stopped her.
She caught her breath and watched through the window as a Lincoln Town Car stopped at the curb and shut off its lights. The driver’s side door opened and a tall man dressed in black started up the front walk.
42
Nora dropped to the marble floor, pulling Petal down. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered.
“No.” Petal’s cry sounded plaintive.
Nora crawled toward the hallway. “This way. I think there’s a door in the kitchen.”
Abbey plodded after Nora, unconcerned with her strange behavior.
As soon as Nora was far enough into the hall she couldn’t be seen through the foyer windows, she jumped to her feet and sprinted toward the kitchen.
Petal ran after her, small moans escaping with each step.
Nora pushed the kitchen door open and halted in the darkness, remembering the layout. Island, stove, sub-zero freezer, more counters. Her mind found escape just as her eyes adjusted to the dark.
They heard the front door open. Why hadn’t they locked it? It snicked closed.
She grabbed Petal’s hand and patted her thigh to bring Abbey closer.
“Here.” They skirted the kitchen island, heading for the garage door. All three of them hurried through the door.
If they had the time, they could have had a barn dance in the garage. With no windows, it was even darker than the kitchen. Nora’s feet clattered on the textured concrete floor as she dragged Petal toward the back where she hoped she’d find escape.
She fumbled beside the large overhead garage door, desperate to find a regular door knob. If they used the automatic door it would sound like buffalo stampede and they’d lose any chance of sneaking away.
She couldn’t find a door. Frantic, Nora stopped and searched the dark garage. A small light by the kitchen showed the overhead door control. They might be able to escape if the man in black had started upstairs in his search.
At any rate, they had no choice.
Nora ran back to the kitchen door and punched the control.
The motor roared with the sound of a freight train. The overhead light burst on.
Nora sprinted for the opening, grabbing Petal’s hand on the way. “Come, Abbey!”
The garage door rose with the speed of a frozen river.
The kitchen door swung outward. “Hey!” The man shouted at them.
Nora dove and rolled under the door.
Petal copied her.
Abbey ran after them.
“Stop!” The man yelled.
“Run!” Nora leapt to her feet, heading toward the Jeep.
A gunshot exploded from the garage, shattering the wood of the door.
Petal screamed.
43
Nora skidded on the snow in the driveway. “Petal!” Had she been shot?
She’d barely turned when Petal plowed into her, knocking her on her tailbone.
Another shot pegged the driveway next to them.
Nora must have jumped to her feet and dashed across the driveway and street to open the Jeep door, but she didn’t remember it. Now she held the door open for Abbey and Petal to dive into the back seat.
Abigail gasped. “Whatever is—?”
Nora vaulted into the driver’s seat. “Hang on.” She cranked the key and jammed it into gear.
“Hurry!” Petal screamed form the backseat.
Nora peeled away from the curb, the back end slipping in the slush.
She caught a glimpse of Sylvia’s house in the rearview mirror. The man stood in the light from the garage watching them.
“What’s happening?” Abigail asked.
Nora pointed at the phone. “Is that Charlie?”
“Well, yes it’s Cole’s phone because he didn’t char—”
Nora careened around a corner and gunned it. “Tell him to meet us at Baseline and Foothills. In the Safeway parking lot.”
Abigail swiveled in her sit and gasped. “Who is that man?”
“Mother! Tell Charlie.”
Abigail repeated the instructions into the phone.
Nora slid around the next corner and ran a red light.
Abigail pulled the phone away from her ear. “He doesn’t know where that is.”
Another light at the intersection on Broadway turned from yellow to red. Nora glanced left and right, saw headlights, and slammed on the brakes. Abbey crashed into the back of her seat. “Cole can get him there.”
Nora waited for the sparse traffic to pass in front of her, and then crossed the intersection despite the red.
Abigail spoke into the phone and ended the call. She twisted to see into the back seat. “Petal, are you all right?”
Nora didn’t hear any response. She concentrated on the street. The pavement ran with melted snow and slush. If you headed to the grocery store for milk, it would be a matter of slowing down to be safe. If you were running for your lives, it meant some sliding turns.
Abigail braced her arms against the dash. “You’re going to kill us.”
Nora whipped into the Safeway parking lot and slid to a stop behind a bank building.
“Now, will you tell me what’s going on?” Abigail folded her arms, the slick fabric of Nora’s best ski jacket whizzing in the silence.
“Sylvia and Daniel killed Mark.”
“Oh my god!”
“They plan to send out a beam to cause an earthquake in Ecuador.”
Abigail’s lips turned down in skepticism. “Well, that’s just silly.”
Nora didn’t have time to convince Abigail. “I’ve got to stop them. So you and Petal have to stay with Charlie.”
Abigail held up her phone. “We need to go to the police. I don’t know who that man at Sylvia’s house was, but he shot at you and that’s against the law.”
“No!” Petal came to life in the back seat.
Nora and Abigail wrenched around.
Petal placed her hands on the back of their seats. “I need to go up to the tower. It’s the only way to stop this. I can disable it.”
“Can’t we stop the beam from the office?” Nora asked.
“Yes” Petal squeaked. “But it’s very secure and Sylvia is the only one who knows the codes to get in and cancel the launch. If she’s got it set there’s nothing we can do.”
Nora straightened and stared ahead. The Town Car sat at a red light on Baseline.
Duck! Hide! Run! But all she could do was pray he didn’t see them.
If the shooter twisted in his seat and surveyed the parking lot, he could spot them parked behind the bank.
Abigail’s no-nonsense tone set the course. “The police can take you there.”
Petal trembled. “They won’t believe me. They’ll waste time and the beam will go off before we can get there.”
The light turned green and the Town Car eased across Foothills Highway, heading east.
People live in Ecuador. Cities lie at the base of several volcanoes. An eruption or a high magnitude earthquake would kill… Nora had no idea how many people. Not to mention the devastation to the rainforest and what long term, world-wide environmental problems that would create.
She addressed Petal. “Cole will take you to Mount Evans. I’ll go to the office and see if I can cancel the launch.”
“What am I going to do?” Abigail asked.
Nora rubbed her forehead. “You stay with Charlie and Abbey. I don’t want to worry about you.”
Abigail reached for her handbag on the floor of the Jeep. She unzipped a pouch on the bottom of the bag Nora had never noticed and pulled out a small pistol. She held it out to Nora. “You’d better take this.”
What the—? “Mother, why are you carrying a gun? Is it loaded?”
Abigail wore a satisfied smile. “The gun isn’t real, dear. I saw it in SkyMall. It’s an authentic replica designed to scare muggers. You pull that out and they run away.”
“And this will do me what kind of good?”
“You didn’t know it was fake. How do you expect Sylvia to know the difference? Wave it around, demand she cancel the death beam, call the cops, save Petal, easy as pie.”
Nora doubted it would be that easy.
Headlights appeared around the west corner of the bank. Cole eased his pickup beside them. Charlie’s door opened and he raced around the front of the Jeep toward Abigail’s door.
Cole climbed from the driver’s side.
Nora scanned the intersection of Baseline and Foothills for the Town Car’s return. All clear. She jumped out of the Jeep and stepped in a puddle. She met Cole by the bed of his pickup. “You need to take Petal to Mount Evans.”
He scowled. “You want me to do you a favor?”
“It’s not for me. It’s—” She couldn’t explain it all again. There was no time. “Please. Just trust me.”
He folded his arms. “I’ll do this for you. But this is it. No more.”
“What do you mean?”
The Nora Abbott Mystery series Box Set Page 52