Malice Masterpieces 2

by K'Anne Meinel

  ~The End~ K’Anne ;-P

  MOURNING MALICE

  Book 7

  Never in her life could Alice remember feeling like this, this…helpless. It was an unfamiliar feeling for her but she was certain she didn’t like it, didn’t like it at all. Seeing Kathy lying there had been one shock, dealing with the authorities another. She didn’t remember dialing 911 but then remembered the odd little chirping noise of her house alarm. She sat there stunned barely able to answer their questions but in monosyllables. They got the information out of her as to who she was, who Kathy was, and what she had found, but barely. Normally she had contempt for authorities but the shock, the vulnerability she was now feeling had suspended her normal feelings, her usually cool and cold demeanor that kept them at bay and allowed her to lie if necessary. Unknowingly her very vulnerability and honesty was her saving grace here, they had honest answers from her and she was in enough shock that they believed her.

  “What do you think? Is she our suspect?” one of the detectives asked the other soto-voice in speculation as they watched Alice watch the crime scene investigators. She had barely moved but from the floor where she had been discovered holding the corpse to the couch where the detectives had extensively questioned her.

  The other detective shook his head and said, “Well her information checks out. She’s some investment guru from Palos Verdes and the victim is her wife. It’s obvious they were planning some type of picnic from the basket but the note that chick,” he indicated the blonde Alice, “Mentioned, I’d like to see.”

  They both were silent as they watched other team members gather evidence and then the coroner came in with a body bag. As Alice watched they unzipped it and lifted Kathy’s lifeless body into the bag and zipped it shut. She closed her eyes in pain at the sight. Both detectives noted her reaction. She hadn’t cried but then victims reacted differently at every scene, both detectives had already made up their mind that Alice was innocent of any wrongdoing and merely the wife of the deceased. She was too petite, too much in shock to be the perpetrator of the crime, little did they know that looks were deceiving but in this case they were right. Further evidence was being gathered and they watched the team as the coroner brought in a gurney and they lifted the body onto it. Alice watched dully as they took her wife, her life, out on the gurney.

  She sat there for a long time, answering any and all questions the detectives had for her until they said she could go.

  In a little girl’s voice, her blonde petite prettiness noted she asked, “Could you call me a cab, I don’t think I can drive.”

  Both detectives immediately agreed and one of them pulled out his cell to make the call for her. They had already decided in their own minds that she was innocent of any wrong doing. She would have to be cold and heartless to of pulled off this crime. Little did they know that Alice was pulling into cold and heartless, she was reverting back to the woman she had been before meeting Kathy, the woman who could have pulled off such a murder and met the police on their own terms, never arousing suspicions, never involved in such a crime. At the moment though she was just what they thought, a victim of a violent crime, an innocent bystander in the ruin of what had become an ideal life.

  As the cab drove her home from the condo she thought about what she had seen but it registered differently than what she normally would have noted. She realized her heart was breaking at the thought of going on without Kathy, of telling their children, of facing Kit with the news that their mother was dead. And why was Kathy dead? Who had killed her? Was it just some random murder or had she surprised burglars in their empty condo? She didn’t have a lot of faith in the police having avoided their suspicions on several occasions in the past but now she wished she had had more time to investigate the scene, to compile her own evidence and to check out the condo. The alarm had triggered a response that had brought the police to the condo right behind her, was that contrived, had the murderer wanted to point the finger at Alice or had she surprised the murderer by entering the condo when she had. They didn’t use it much except for as a tax write off and a place to store the boat, having a picnic there with her wife had sounded romantic and wonderful to Alice. She sank back in the seat, turned off her mind, and let the cab drive her home.

  “I don’t care what you say, my mom is coming home!” the thirteen year old Kit shouted at Alice.

  Alice sighed in annoyance trying to quell the need to smack the rebellious teen into reality, to keep from losing her ‘cool’ over her refusal to face the facts. The younger children didn’t really understand that Kathy wouldn’t be coming home but the nanny and the housekeeper had both dissolved into tears causing the little boy and girl to cry along with them. Only Alice had remained strangely calm, strangely unable to cry. Dealing with a teenager was bad enough but Alice knew that Kit was hurting, she was angry, she was incredulous at the news, and she was rebelling in the only way she knew how. “I’m sorry Kit,” she shook her head, “She isn’t,” she lowered her voice sadly; “I wish she were,” and a small sob escaped her normal cool facade much to Alice’s surprise.

  “You’re just saying that,” she shouted once more in rebelliousness and ran up to her room to slam the door to her bedroom in equal defiance.

  Nan made a move to go follow her but Alice silently shook her head. She knelt down in the living room where they were having this conversation before her two younger children and gathered them close. They didn’t really understand that their ‘Mommy’ wasn’t coming home but they could sense and see the upset of all the adults and their older adored sister and were responding to it. Alice held onto the small bodies as they cried themselves to sleep and one by one Nan took them to the nursery.

  “Is there something I can get you Ms. Weaver?” the housekeeper Mrs. Fernandez asked kindly seeing Alice in shock was kind of unnerving and while she was normally cold it was her very coldness that they had become used to, this behavior, what they were now seeing was odd and not normal at all.

  Alice looked at her sadly, “I need to make some phone calls,” she said. It was still early enough in the evening that she could call Kathy’s friends and especially Portia and Andie to give them the horrible news. Alice had never really made such calls, even the death of her sister Connie hasn’t generated this much feeling, this many emotions. Alice made the calls dry eyed and professionally but was unprepared for the questions asking about a funeral, she had to tell them that it hadn’t been decided yet and she would let them know.

  It was late at night and both Emily and Sean were sleeping in the master bedroom with Alice. Strangely she didn’t mind. Kathy had allowed it occasionally when the children seemed to need it. Now though Alice felt she needed it. She wasn’t surprised that the children hadn’t remained asleep and wasn’t surprised to see Kit open the door to the master suite. She stopped immediately upon seeing that Alice was awake and sitting up in bed, her side of the bed was on the right and the left was wide open. Both children were plastered against her left side but still left a lot of room on the left for where Kathy had slept in the king sized bed. Alice was gently petting the children as she had seen Kathy do countless times to comfort the children, their hair was brushed back from their faces and their breathing indicated they were asleep.

  “Can I come in?” she asked quietly, hesitantly unsure of her welcome after her defiance.

  Alice looked at her sadly and nodded. She held out her right arm and Kit came unhesitantly into it. As brave and defiant as she had been earlier she wanted the comfort of her mother and Alice was the next best thing. Alice gathered her close her left arm encircling her into a bear hug, her eyes still strangely dry as she closed them to feel the young body against her own. Kit looked heartbreakingly like Kathy and Alice had seen it long ago, the older she got the more she looked like Kathy. Seeing a younger version of the woman who had changed her life had left Alice with a tightness in her throat. She held the teen in her arms as she sobbed and petted her just like the younger children. The
four of them grief stricken in the bed that had known so much love, holding each other for comfort until unconsciousness claimed them in the form of sleep, for Alice it was a long time in coming.

  Alice got up at 4am and looked at the three mounds in her bed; she tucked the blanket in around them for warmth against the absence of her body heat as she got up. Going down to the office she searched for and found the note Kathy had left her and carefully looked it over touching only the edges. She got out her cell phone and made a phone call, a sleepy voice answered angrily and she barked out instructions, at the expected protestations she countered and soon had an agreement. Carefully she put the letter in a plastic sleeve and waited for the anticipated knock on the front door. She handed the sleeve to the tousled haired man that was standing there and said, “Remember, you only have an hour or so,” and he nodded in agreement saying nothing as he took the sleeve and left.

  Alice sat in the living room unable to sleep any longer and watched as the sun came up and slowly lit up the ocean from black, to dark blue, to a greenish hue, to another shade of blue. She didn’t have coherent thoughts, in fact the only thought she had was waiting on the return of the note. She had to have it in hand before the police came to gather the evidence, she was surprised that they had left it yesterday and not followed her home but was grateful for the additional time. She heard the vehicle drive up her drive and was waiting again at the front door to open it before he could knock. They exchanged no words as they both nodded and he left. She returned the note to the office and slipped it out of its sleeve.

  Breakfast was solemn and only the two younger children really had an appetite, again they weren’t as affected as the adults around them. Kit sniffed her way through it and then returned to her bedroom to call her friends before school and tell them why she wouldn’t be in today. Alice called the middle school to excuse her and then dressed casually to wait for the police she was certain would arrive.

  To say they were impressed at the estate that Kit and Kathy had lived on together was an understatement. Both detectives looked around in wonder at the fine taste and expensive furnishings. Alice led them around showing them the house, allaying any suspicions they might have had towards her. The house was obviously well kept and she introduced them first to Mrs. Fernandez and then to Nan as well as her children. The note didn’t arouse any suspicions either and they took it with them when they left.

  Alice had been told she could claim the body on Friday and arranged for a funeral home to do so. She also arranged for them to hold the funeral the following day and went out to purchase a casket and plot for Kathy’s body to be interred in. It was one of the hardest things she had ever done. She found herself resenting the salesmen trying to ‘up’ charge her on the funeral arrangements and despite her obvious wealth, she chose a simple casket and a simple single plot in the cemetery.

  Later that day with the information she now had about the funeral she faxed over an obituary to the newspaper that she had written including the date and time of the funeral, handing Nan the household credit card she had her take the Volvo and go out to buy the three children appropriate clothing for the funeral.

  It wasn’t until Alice was standing by the hole that her wife would be lowered into that she actually felt an emotion she was again unfamiliar with. Never in her life had she felt like this, that her heart was being ripped out of her body. She had buried her sister with absolutely none of these emotions plaguing her but with Kathy she felt herself losing control, she felt a need to do something, anything. Normally she would have avenged herself or planned the revenge but she had no clue to go on at this time. The police had found no reason for her death other than the slash across her neck that had drained out the lifeblood of her wife. There had been some type of struggle and the alarm had been pressed on the box but they had no evidence with which to go on. It would remain one of Los Angeles’ many unsolved crimes although both detectives had assured Alice they would keep on it. She knew they were just paying her lip service and would find nothing. Whoever had committed this crime hadn’t been random in her mind, someone, somewhere, was paying Alice back for something she had done was her only clear thought.

  She stared at the hole as she stood there in black, Kit was sobbing on her right and Sean on her left, Alice had her arms around her children, a tangible connection with Kathy. Nan had Emily on her lap and she looked adorable in her little black dress and was playing with the matching hat, not understanding that her world had been turned upside down. Sean was crying but only because his big sister Kit was, he had no real idea of the enormity of the situation. They had told the four year old that his beloved Momma K was in that long box and he didn’t understand why she wasn’t coming back. Mrs. Fernandez was standing nearby crying genuinely for the kind hearted woman she had worked for and for the children who were left with the cold woman who she still worked for, she wondered what would become of them all. Alice heard no words of comfort as she stared at the casket, no coherent thought was running through her head, jumbled thoughts of all the last six years went through her head as she absently noted who was at the funeral and listened to the minister drone on about a woman he knew nothing about. Alice had ‘donated’ to his church to have him here on her wife’s behalf and while he didn’t approve of this couple he did appreciate the donation and would do an adequate job for them.

  “Do you think she’s lost her mind? She was the one to find Kathy after all?” one of the guests back at the house where a gathering was going on asked Portia as they chatted and ate.

  Portia glanced at Alice who was looking out over the ocean, anyone with half a brain could see she was in shock. She had never seen what Kathy saw in her but she had loved her and Alice had supplied her with this ideal life. She shrugged, “Its shock, it hasn’t hit her yet, but when it does, look out.”

  Andie nodded in agreement, Alice’s normal cold demeanor could only be attributed to shock. Since they had gotten there her customary emotionless manner was back in place. Only the children seemed to bring out anything in her. As they watched her surreptitiously the two younger children came up and hugged her. Sean around her hips and Emily around her legs, Alice glanced down and smiled as she returned their hugs before picking Emily up and keeping her arm around Sean. They saw as Kit joined the trio putting her arm around Alice’s waist and leaning against Emily and the four of them looked like a sad little family at the loss of the woman who had bonded them.

  Alice couldn’t remember the last months very clearly. Her home was cleaned for her, her children attended to, her life non-existent. She knew her stocks were doing okay by the financials she was reading but okay wasn’t something she was used to. Outstanding, yes, phenomenal, absolutely, but okay was mediocre and not in her normal forte. As she looked at the paperwork on her desk it was like the world had stood still and she was numb from its apparent disregard of her situation. It was the phone call that she had just received from the middle school that suddenly had woken her up, if only for a moment.

  Kit was doing horribly in school was what she had been told. That wasn’t surprising given everything that had happened to the kid. Her mother’s death, her friends not understanding her loss and slowly turning away from her, school just wasn’t that interesting anymore to the teenager. Her rebellion had mounted and Alice had arranged to enroll her in a grief counseling program through the school. Apparently her anger had increased and she was now about to be suspended for vandalism. Would Ms. Weaver please come to the school and meet with the principal so they could work out an agreement.

  Alice stared at the financials a moment more before returning her glance to the telephone. Kit suspended? Kathy wouldn’t have allowed it. In fact, Kathy wouldn’t have allowed a lot of the behavior that she now saw in their children. Alice realized she had put herself into a position that Kathy would not have liked or approved of. She would have verbally kicked Alice in the pants and gotten her to act, to react to the situation, to provoke her into doing something, a
nything. Not this mind numbing and cold person she had been, not this person who allowed her children to be raised by paid employees and school administrators who knew nothing of Kathy’s values or ideals. Alice knew those things, only she could instill them in their children and she was failing, not a situation she was used to dealing with, she rarely failed at what she set out to do, she realized that phone call was a wakeup call in many ways. She could almost hear Kathy and what she would say at such a situation, the voice was in her head but the chastisement made an impression on the cold petite blonde.

  She looked down at the sweats she was wearing, they were comfortable, they were worn, and they were a little sweaty from the hike she had taken along the bluffs down to the beach earlier. She did that a lot to keep up her exercise routine and to escape from her thoughts about Kathy and what she could have done better in their time together and in their marriage. She didn’t have a lot of regrets but she wished she could have had more time to make Kathy happy, not that she hadn’t been happy, Alice had provided her with a life that few people could imagine and a freedom that only money could provide, but Alice felt she could have been more emotionally available. She had learned so much from Kathy and now realized she was forever changed. She couldn’t allow her children, their family to go by the wayside just because she had stopped caring in so many ways. She knew Kathy would have been terribly disappointed in the way things had deteriorated. She also knew that for the sake of Kathy’s memory she owed it to her to keep the family together, to keep it together for her, to mentally buck up. It was all up to her now and she looked down at her appearance knowing it all began with her. She realized she couldn’t possibly go out dressed like this.